Downfall: Resident Evil II
by Liquid
Summary: When Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop, and Claire Redfield, a college student searching for her brother arrive in Raccoon City, what they find is a nightmare beyond belief. Now, trapped inside the police station, and hunted by blood-thirsty monsters, they must try to stay alive long enough to find a way out.
1. Chapter 1 Fallen STARS

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter One: Fallen S.T.A.R.S.**

 _MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION ROCKS THE ARKLAY MOUNTAINS_

 _July 24_ _th_ _, 1998 by Ben Bertolucci_

 _This morning at about 6:00 AM, residents on the northern side of Raccoon City were awoken by what was described by witnesses as 'a brilliant flash of light'. This flash was then followed by a rumbling in the ground that made many residents worry that an earthquake was happening. The origin of the blast, although the source of which is currently unknown, appeared to come from high up in the Arklay Mountains, near the edge of the area known by locals as the 'Forest Zone'. Authorities claim that the incident is being investigated, and that details will be made available to the public as they develop._

 _ARKLAY MOUNTAINS EXPLOSION LINKED TO CANNIBAL MURDERS_

 _July 31_ _st_ _, 1998 by Alyssa Ashcroft_

 _Sources inside the Raccoon City Police Department have shared information that the explosion reported by residents last week was both intentional, and linked to a police operation conducted by the R.P.D.'s Special Tactics and Rescue Service. This S.T.A.R.S. team was investigating a potential hideout of those responsible for the attacks on campers and hikers, which began last spring._

 _According to our sources, the S.T.A.R.S. team suffered heavy losses during the operation, and then through means unknown, triggered an explosion powerful enough to both destroy the historic Spencer Estate, and cause fire damage to several acres of protected State Forest. Neither R.P.D. Chief Brian Irons, nor Raccoon City Mayor Michael Warren could be reached for comment._

 _SURVIVING R.P.D. S.T.A.R.S. PERSONNEL SUSPENDED_

 _August 2_ _nd_ _, 1998 by Ben Bertolucci_

 _Pending a full review of the incident that took place during the operation in the Arklay Mountains two weeks ago, R.P.D. Special Tactics and Rescue Service members Christopher Redfield, Jillian Valentine, Bernard Burton, Bradly Vickers, and Rebecca Chambers have been placed on administrative leave. No official word has yet been given from the police force as to the progress, or any findings of this investigation, but the people of Raccoon City can rest assured that the Raccoon City Press will be monitoring the situation closely for further updates._

 _DISGRACED S.T.A.R.S. MEMBER OFFERS DISTURBING ACCOUNT_

 _August 15_ _th_ _, 1998 by Alyssa Ashcroft_

 _Speaking with the press for the first time since his suspension from the Raccoon City Police Department last month, Christopher Redfield contacted the Raccoon City Press for what he referred to as a 'last-ditch attempt to get the truth out'. His account of the events that unfolded last month will not be listed in full detail due to their graphic nature, but a censored version will be released in tomorrow's issue._

 _Mr. Redfield's account details a mission that was sabotaged from the start, said sabotage resulting in the almost complete destruction of the organization's Bravo Team, and allegedly caused by the S.T.A.R.S. overall Commander, Captain Albert Wesker. According to Mr. Redfield, Wesker was acting under orders from the Umbrella Corporation to terminate any investigation into the Cannibal Murders, in order to cover up the fact that the historic Spencer Estate had been converted into a laboratory designed for the production of biological weapons._

 _When asked about the disturbing account of Mr. Redfield, Police Chief Brian Irons was quick to dismiss the claims, stating that although any possible evidence had been destroyed, 'an internal police investigation had determined that the Arklay Mountains incident was the result of poor judgement in the field'. Irons also went on to say that the R.P.D. was appalled by these 'disgusting allegations', and that he 'wanted to issue an official apology to both the city, and to the Umbrella Corporation for the unprofessional, and downright slanderous conduct of Mr. Redfield'._

 _CITY ON EDGE: 'CANNIBAL' ATTACKS REPORTED WITHIN CITY LIMITS_

 _August 22_ _nd_ _, 1998 by Ben Bertolucci_

 _As the people of Raccoon City begin to move on from the disgraceful actions of 'rogue elements' of the police force during the month of July, the Raccoon City Press has been informed that 911 calls from the northern-most areas have dramatically increased, especially in the areas of violent crime. Recordings from police radio traffic have confirmed that the amount of residential break-ins have tripled in the past month, and almost all have involved some kind of violent assault on the victims, in some cases including attempted murder._

 _The element of these reported crimes that concerns most citizens is that a good number of the perpetrators, although unarmed, resorted to biting their victims upon being confronted. When confronted about these new developments, both Mayor Warren and Police Chief Irons denied any allegations that these attacks were being committed by the same group responsible for the Cannibal Murders, and Chief Irons went on to say that 'all evidence pointed to the deaths of those responsible for those horrendous crimes during the disastrous operation carried out by S.T.A.R.S. personnel back in July'._

 _NEIGHBORHOODS BLOCKED OFF: POLICE CLAIM RIOTS_

 _August 31_ _st_ _, 1998 by Alyssa Ashcroft_

 _Residents were forced to move quickly late last night when Raccoon City Mayor Michael Warren ordered the evacuation of all residential areas north of Raccoon Street, with barriers being placed in the streets beginning at the south side of the St. Michael Clock Tower. The official statement given at this morning's press briefing at the R.P.D. was that 'there is a full scale riot in progress, with several dangerous fugitives on the loose, but those fugitives will soon be apprehended'._

 _Residents who were forced to leave their homes seem to confirm this statement, many of them giving reports of seeing neighbors being savagely attacked during the evacuation, with the alleged rioters going so far as to attack police officers during close confrontations. So far no such incidents have been reported in the areas south of the barriers, and Police Chief Irons was quick to credit the efficiency of the newly formed R.P.D. Special Weapons and Tactics team, which was created as a replacement for the disbanded S.T.A.R.S. Current projections for resolution of these riots claim that order will be restored in a matter of days._

 _RIOTS CONTINUE: BARRICADED ZONES EXPANDED_

 _September 6_ _th_ _, 1998 by Ben Bertolucci_

 _The so called rioters continued their rampage for the third straight week, forcing police to expand the barricaded areas southward to Euston Street, officially blocking off everything north of the Raccoon City Community College. Most citizen concern comes from having several of the city's exit roads blocked off, leaving only a few avenues of escape should the violence spill over into the rest of the city._

 _Responding in an official statement during this afternoon's press conference, Police Chief Irons expressed desire to remind the people that 'although the crisis faced by the city is a severe one, the brave men and women of the R.P.D. will prevail against these aggressors'. His statement also included the announcement that several more officers were going to be added to the precinct, including some from outside the city in order to combat this threat._

 _Many citizens, however, do not share this optimism, citing the disgrace and dismissal of the surviving members of S.T.A.R.S., whom many are starting to wonder if they had been telling the truth all along. However, there have been no sightings of any members of the group since Christopher Redfield's last interview. More details on this developing story as they unfold._

 _IT'S ALL OVER: RACCOON CITY'S GONE TO HELL_

 _(Unpublished, maybe last report, I don't know) September something, 1998 by Ben Bertolucci_

 _That's it, it's all over, the cops couldn't stop this from happening, Umbrella couldn't stop it from happening, and well, I'm pretty sure that no one else can stop it either. I got trapped here in the police station the last time they moved the barriers… not that those matter anymore. I don't know if there are any cops left around, and things are all quiet around here lately… not that I'm about to go out and check._

 _I should've left the city when Alyssa and those others were going to, but no, I was an idiot, and I thought I would be safer with the cops. Stupid cops, stupid Umbrella, they're both to blame, and I should've known that it was all a cover-up… not that that matters now. We should've listened to those people from S.T.A.R.S., but no, everyone wanted to feel safe and just shut their eyes._

 _Well, everyone's getting to shut their eyes now, damn it. The saddest part about all this is that right now I'm living through the biggest story of my life, but there's no one around to read it. There's no one around at all. I think… I think I'm all alone… am I really the last one? Imagine me, Ben Bertolucci, the last man in Raccoon City… and my old man told me I'd never amount to anything._


	2. Chapter 2 Empty Streets

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Two: Empty Streets**

While usually heavy with traffic that was flowing in and out of the nearby communities, _Old Route 64_ was unusually dark and silent, at least since crossing the line into _Arklay County_. Not that Leon Kennedy minded, since it meant that there were no traffic jams or accidents to stop him from reaching _Raccoon City_ , something that he had been excited about for well over a week now.

During his last week at the Police Academy, the option had been given for him and any other willing Cadets to volunteer for service in an area with a higher than usual crime rate. This urgent need for replacement officers meant a guaranteed hire, waiving of any probation period, assistance with finding an apartment, all things that any rookie straight out of the academy should have jumped at. However… it was not all good news.

Such a need for new officers meant that not only was the area in question really bad, but also that they were losing people. The man Leon had talked to was vague about the details, saying something about riots and violent offenders, and this seemed to scare off a lot of previously interested Cadets… but not Leon. To him, the situation would have been the same if he had gotten hired in someplace like _Detroit_ or _Los Angeles_ , and since he was planning on having a career in law enforcement, it was situations like this that would distinguish him from the others.

Turns out that he was the only volunteer in the end, and apparently Raccoon City… wherever _that_ was… had been in even more dire need than he thought, since his initial processing into the department had been done on the spot. Leon had to fill out a bunch of forms, which were faxed to the R.P.D., and that had pretty much been it. He never saw the man who had recruited him again, but after finishing the final week of academy training, his new badge and service weapon had been left for him, with instructions to report to the R.P.D. as soon as possible.

So that was what he did; jumping into his jeep as soon as graduation was over, and hit the road. Turns out that Raccoon City was only a hundred or so miles from the academy, so he would be able to make it there by that same evening, although he was kind of sad that he hadn't yet been issued a uniform. On the other hand, riding into town in a leather jacket and jeans, with his badge clipped to his belt made him feel more like one of those grizzled old detectives, like in _Tango and Cash_ or _Dirty Harry_.

He wasn't actually like that, of course, and was certain to be treated like the rookie that he was by the senior guys, but that was all part of the process. In a few short years, with hard work and doing a good job handling the riots or whatever was happening in the city, who knows? Maybe he would end up as a _Shift Sergeant_ in the _Burglary Division_ , or even a _Homicide Detective_. Yes, sir, the future seemed bright for this young police officer, but as the sun went down, and the traffic around him steadily thinned out to the point of being non-existent… he started to feel a bit apprehensive.

It was like everyone had just vanished after his jeep passed the county line, and since there were barely any streetlights up in the higher areas of the Arklay Mountains, it was like he was suddenly driving through an endless tunnel. There was a full moon, but the thick canopy of trees kept that from doing any good until he exited the forest zone about twenty minutes later, and then there it was. Down at the bottom of the hill was all the lights of Raccoon City, Leon's new home, and the place where his hopefully very long career in law enforcement would begin.

"Okay, we're in the home stretch." He said, turning on the jeep's radio. "Let's see what kind of music they listen to in _good old_ Raccoon City."

Turning up the volume, and adjusting the knob, the needle started from the far left as Leon scanned… and scanned… and scanned until the needle reached the end of the radio's band, in both FM and AM frequencies. There was _nothing_ … so he started over, scanning again, and again, but finally turning off the radio when he came to the realization that there was not a _single_ station broadcasting from Raccoon City.

As odd as it was to not even find an AM _Jesus_ station on the band, this also meant that he was in for a lot of boring shifts if nothing was going on. The _good_ news was that if this whole cop thing didn't work out, he could always start a _heavy metal_ station up in the mountains… of course, all he had in the jeep at the time was a bunch of _Rush_ cassettes. Maybe he would be better off starting a radio station that played more modern things, like those ' _N SYNC_ people the high-schoolers were listening to.

By this time, he had neared the bottom of the hill, and was crossing through the suburban southern-most regions of the city. It was nice to have streetlights again, but it was strange… there was literally no one on the streets, and Leon could see lights on inside of houses, but no movement of people within. In fact, as he moved past the suburbs, and into what looked like some kind of shopping district, he only saw more of the same. There were lights on inside most of the businesses, with lighted signs that read: _open_ , but there were _no_ people.

Wait, hold on a second… there _was_ a person… a single figure of a woman that came into view at the crosswalk. However, as Leon's headlight beams fell onto her while he was coming to a stop, he was able to see that she was not exactly walking… and rather… lying face down in the middle of the street. For a moment he just sat there, taken completely by surprise by this site, but then his police training kicked in, causing him to put the jeep in park before grabbing a flashlight, and getting out in investigate.

"Uh… miss?" He called, shining the light on her as he approached. "Are you all right?"

There was no response at all from the fallen woman, so maybe she had fallen and hit her head, or she could have passed out from a night of drinking. Either way, he was the only cop on the scene, and he didn't have a radio from the station yet, so it was his job to evaluate the situation. Calling out to her again, and still receiving no response by the time he got up to her, Leon knelt down to see if she had a pulse. He was about to touch her neck, when he stopped, noticing that she appeared to be more hurt than just a simple smack to the head.

There seemed to be wounds on her arms and back, well… more like gashes across her flesh like someone had assaulted her with a dull blade of some… actually, now that he got a better look with the flashlight, the wound patterns were wrong for a blade of any kind, since all around each laceration was a pattern of marks that almost looked like… _bite marks_? Had this woman been attacked by some kind of large wild animal? Oh crap, was there a large wild animal prowling close by?

Reaching behind his back and taking out the pistol from in his belt, Leon held his flashlight up against it as he looked around the area, but to his surprise it was not an animal that he saw moving around. It was another person, this time a man that was slowly walking toward him from behind the jeep… but something was off. The man was shambling, almost _stumbling_ around like he was intoxicated. Maybe this was a good thing, since he could have been this woman's boyfriend, out looking for her after they got separated.

"Hey, buddy." Leon called, opening his jacket to show his badge. "Raccoon City Police… do you know this girl? She's been hurt pretty bad, and… uh…

His words faded away as the shambling man was joined by another, moving just as slowly as he came from near one of the nearby businesses… and then another from the other side of the street. At first Leon thought that they were grumbling or simply talking too softly for him to hear from that distance, but as they approached, the sounds coming from their mouths started to sound more like pained moaning.

Something was off about their looks as well… the skin of each person had become strangely discolored, ranging from being yellowed, to a slightly odd-purplish kind of tone, and now there were even more of them joining in, forming a small crowd now as they got between him and his jeep. Some of them were reaching toward him now, even though they were still a good distance away, and their eyes were so vacant; so heavily glazed over that they almost appeared to be white, and they had marks on their arms and torsos… some on their necks and face… marks that looked eerily similar to the ones on the fallen woman behind him.

"Okay guys, that's close enough." Leon said firmly, keeping the pistol aimed at them. "Raccoon City Police… just stay where you are… I said stay where you are!"

What in the hell was wrong with these people, he wondered? Was it drugs? Some kind rabies from… whatever attacked them? There were still more of these deranged looking people shambling out from behind the jeep, and the closest ones were starting to snarl, drooling heavily as they approached. Everything he was seeing was starting to make a different kind of fear enter his mind… the kind of fear that came along with a scenario entering his mind… an _impossible_ scenario that seemed like something out of a bad horror movie… yet there it was.

"All right, I said _stop_ , God damn it!" He yelled, taking the safety off the pistol as he stood up. "Stop where you are, or I'll shoot!"

The crowd didn't stop, and as much as Leon hated to do it, he was alone there against a clearly hostile group of people, so he aimed at the nearest one's leg, and pulled the trigger. There was an echoing _bang_ as the bullet tore through the shambling man's jeans, and he groaned before stumbling sideways, but didn't fall down. Instead, he simply regained his balance after falling up against a post office drop box, continuing his advance a moment later… but where Leon had expected the crowd to disburse the moment he showed deadly force… the rest of them acted as if nothing had happened.

The rest of the shambling people didn't seem to care at all that he had just shot one of their friends, so feeling really nervous now, Leon pulled the trigger again, this time hitting the next closest one in the shoulder… but there was still no reaction at all. He was about to shoot again, but then he heard another moaning sound… this time from down at his feet. Gasping as he felt something clamp down on his ankle, Leon looked down to see that the previously motionless fallen girl had suddenly come to life.

Like the others, her eyes were heavily glazed, and she growled, moaning as she opened her mouth to bite him, but thankfully Leon's reflexes kicked in, causing him to aim down and pull the trigger before he even knew what he was doing. There was another _bang_ as the bullet tore into the top of her head, and her grip on him released, allowing him to back away from the approaching crowd… but now he was nearly surrounded, being backed up against the nearby wall… when suddenly the door right behind him was thrown open.


	3. Chapter 3 Emmy's Cafe

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Three: Emmy's Café**

Although it was easily the most heavily traveled option for reaching Raccoon City from the south, Old Route 64 was not the only option, as shown by the single headlight of a lone motorcycle as it made its way up _Highway 25_. It was a smaller, less popular route, perfect for those who wished to avoid the evening rush of a major freeway, but tonight there was absolutely no one on the road… something that nineteen year old Claire Redfield chalked up to a stroke of good luck.

It had been a full year since leaving Raccoon City, and heading off to college almost immediately after graduating from high school, but the unusually long silence from her brother, Chris Redfield, prompted her return. Chris had practically raised her, and the two had talked weekly on the phone for the entire time she was away… but then a little over a month ago that had stopped. No visits, no letters, no calls; in fact, speaking of calls, the last time she had tried to call his apartment, the operator had informed her that the number was no longer in service.

Claire had seen the news over the summer, and heard bits and pieces about something going wrong during one of his operations, but she had been hesitant to believe that her brother could have actually gotten in trouble for something… at least something serious. Of course, there was that whole _getting thrown out of the Air Force_ thing a couple years back, so maybe it was possible for him to have done something…

Either way, that was what she intended to find out, and since the summer term was over, and she didn't really feel like taking fall classes anyway, the young woman decided that now was as good a time as any to visit home. She kept hoping that the most ignorant thing Chris might have done was forget to pay his phone bill, but as Claire exited the forest zone and the lights of Raccoon City came into view, she couldn't help having the strangest feeling that something was wrong.

Wow, this place is dead tonight, she thought as she took _Ema Street_ through the suburbs. Everyone had heard about the riots toward the northern end of the city, hence her decision to come in through Highway 25, but that had been weeks ago. Certainly the RPD would have restored order by now, and there didn't appear to be any kind of rioting going on, at least that she could see. Chris's apartment was downtown, which meant that she had to keep going straight… but after slowing down for a red light, Claire decided to turn right for a little detour.

Her university was three hours away, and she hadn't eaten for a while before that, so the young woman that a little return visit to _Emmy's Café_ seemed appropriate. The food there wasn't as good as it was at the _Grill 13_ or anything, but the coffee was _amazing_ , and besides, the café was closer, so it won by default. Yes, she was in a hurry to get to her brother's place, but with her luck he would have reverted back to full-blown _bachelor mode_ while she was gone, meaning that his refrigerator probably had nothing but canned soup and frozen waffles… and Claire _hated_ frozen waffles… _a lot_.

Emmy's Café was open twenty four hours a day, mostly for cops on the night shift, and all the lights were on when she brought her motorcycle to a stop near the front doors, but it was only after turning off the engine that she realized how quiet everything was. There were no sounds of people or cars, only the softly blowing wind, and the electric _hum_ of the nearby streetlights. To be fair, Raccoon City was a huge place like _Chicago_ or anything like that, but this was the first time in her life that there was literally not a single person to be seen.

This feeling of loneliness and isolation made her feel uneasy, as it would to any young woman who was traveling alone… or probably any _man_ as well in this case. However, she _did_ keep a decent size pocket knife clipped to the waistband of her cut-off jean shorts, just in case anyone got any ideas, but she figured that everything would feel more normal once she was inside the café. The electric sign next to the door was blinking with the word _open_ , so Claire left her motorcycle behind, walking up to the door, and pushing it open.

"Hello, anybody home?" She called, letting the door close behind her as she entered. "Emmy? It's Claire Redfield, I'm back from college, and no it's _not_ because I failed… hello?"

Stopping in the center of the café, and looking around, the young woman was now able to see that this place was just as empty and quiet as the streets had been outside. So what was going on here, she wondered? Had there been some kind of curfew imposed because of the riots? If there was, and some cop picked her up for violating it, the reunion she had planned would probably involve _her_ having to do most of the explaining before…

Suddenly a noise caught her attention; a muffled sort of _clang_ as if someone had just dropped an empty frying pan on the floor, and it was coming from the storeroom that was near the ovens behind the counter. Maybe Emmy was back there doing inventory or something, and hadn't heard her calling out, so Claire walked around the counter, stopping when she saw what looked like two people making out in the storeroom.

She easily recognized the ugly pink sweater than the café's owner loved to wear, and the young woman was happy that Emmy's struggle to find a date were over… but then she noticed the red splatter marks that were spread across the sweater. From behind, Claire could see that the man holding Emmy had sores that almost looked like bite-marks on his neck, and that his skin was oddly discolored… but the worst part was that more redness dripped down onto the floor the next time the man moved his head down to her neck, and this time Claire couldn't help gasping when she realized that it was blood.

The instant she gasped, the man froze, remaining completely still for several seconds, before letting go of Emmy. The clearly dead café owner collapsed where she was, the remaining blood in her neck seeping out to form a small pool around her body as the man turned around… and now that Claire could see him clearly, he was even worse than she thought. There were even more bite-marks on the front of his body, and his eyes were heavily glazed over; reaching an arm toward the young woman and groaning as he took a step forward.

"Oh, shit." Claire whispered, backing away slowly. "Look, I, uh… don't want any trouble, okay? Actually, I was, uh… just leaving, so I'm gonna…

Her words turned into a startled scream as the restroom door that was right next to her flew open, and another deranged looking man grabbed her when he stumbled out. Caught completely off guard, and put off balance, the young woman was easily forced up against the counter to the point where she was almost bent over backwards. She tried reaching for her knife, but instead her to jam her elbow into the man's neck when he started trying to bite her.

He was growling and snarling, drooling heavily while trying to move her arm out of the way, and her knife was on the side that she was defending with, so there was no way to reach it. The man was bigger than her, and Claire's arm was already getting tired from the struggle, so out of desperation she felt around the counter with her free hand… and her fingers closed around what felt like the handle of something.

Hoping that it was a knife, she swung the object at the deranged man's head with all her strength, and then there was a hollow _crack_ when the underside of what turned out to be a frying pan struck him in the temple. Well, it wasn't a knife, but it certainly did the trick; making the man's head wrench to the side in an unnatural angle, and stunning him enough for Claire to bring one of her legs up to his chest, and use it to shove him backwards. He tripped over a chair, bashing his head on the table as he went down, but by this time the first man had almost reached her.

Ducking down to avoid his reach, and then running back toward the front door, Claire's only thought at the moment was escape. She had to get out of the café, and then ride down to the police station as fast as she could so that… suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by something hitting the window of the door in front of her, and the young woman looked up to see yet _another_ deranged person, this time a woman, banging on the window as if trying to get in. And she wasn't alone; there were two more people, also discolored and groaning, moving around to the windows and clawing at them.

"No, no, no, no." She said, searching for a way out. "This isn't happening, it can't…

Claire's denial was cut short when she had to duck down again to avoid being grabbed, this time crawling under a table, and then doing a sort of stumbling-sprint toward the first door that she saw. Hopefully it would lead outside, and not somewhere like a bathroom where she would be trapped… the good news was that the door, in fact, led outside when she shoved it open… the bad news, however, was that the first thing she saw upon getting outside, was a close-up look down the barrel of a gun.

She froze, her eyes moving past the gun and focusing on the young man holding it, but then noticing that he wasn't discolored and deranged like everyone else seemed to be. Claire then started to put up her hands, hoping to make him see that she wasn't… whatever the hell was wrong with the others, and he responded by aiming a little to the left, and pulling the trigger. The flash of light was intense, being that she was so close, and the young woman felt the wind from the bullet passing just inches from her face, even before hearing the bang.

The next thing she heard was an impact, followed by a soft groan, and reflexively Claire turned around just in time to see the man who was chasing her, collapse onto the café floor… a bullet hole in his forehead. Now that the threat from inside was gone, the young woman turned back around, noticing two very important things in the process. The first was that when the young man's jacket moved, she was able to see what looked like an RPD badge on his belt, and the second… was that there were even _more_ of those deranged people approaching from behind him.

" _Great_ , I was _hoping_ the café was clear." The young man said, taking a quick look back at the crowd. "Come on, we gotta get outta here!"

There was no way for her to get back to her motorcycle with those _lunatics_ running around outside, and she wasn't about to argue with the first _normal_ person that she had seen since arriving in the city, especially since he was a cop. So they took off running down the street, with Claire trying to keep up with him as more and more of the deranged people started to shamble out from the shadows.


	4. Chapter 4 Fool for the City

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Four: Fool for the City**

For several hours the majority of Raccoon City had been silent and still, remaining almost like a still-life as the sun slowly set on the western horizon, and continuing to be like this as the timed streetlights flickered on. This silence was broken a few hours later, however, by the appearance of headlights moving down the street. These headlights belonged to a full-size eighteen wheeler, its engine rumbling loudly when the large truck was forced to slow down in order to accommodate city speed limits.

Not usually one to listen to the news, or to really spend much time caring about anything besides his truck and getting the load in on time, Reggie Davis would have probably bypassed the city entirely, if not for the overwhelming power of the fuel gauge. The needle was getting closer to the large letter _E_ than he liked, so hoping that traffic would still be as good on the highway after he fueled up, Reggie pulled onto the exit ramp.

The _Foghat_ cassette tape in his radio was just finishing the last song on its track list as he pulled onto Park Street, so he ejected it, and popped in another one, which also happened to be a _Foghat_ album. The song _Fool for the City_ started to play, and he rolled down the driver-side window, turning up the volume on the radio and sounding the truck's horn several times, just because he felt like doing so. After all, with as little traffic as there was on the road… as in, _none at all_ , the driver figured that the people needed a little wakeup call.

"Breaker, breaker, this is _Roadking Regg_ , callin' all you _road-hogs_ out there." Reggie said, picking up the receiver of his CB radio. "My tanks're dry, pullin' on into Raccoon City, gotta get the old _bull-frog_ some _go-go juice_ , on the _short-short_. Need eyes on a waterin' hole goin' easy on my _green-stamps_ , come on back now, over."

Usually in cities next to the highway there would be a response right away, or maybe some static of the signal was too weak to transmit, but this time there was no static. The channel was open and clear, but there was just… _nothing_ going over the waves. So he tried again, with just as much success, so he set the receiver back down, but left the channel open in case anyone made contact. Thankfully the outskirts of Raccoon City were easy to navigate, and the signs on the exit ramp had pointed the way to a few different options for both gas and food.

" _Breathing all the clean air, sitting in the sun_." The driver sang along with the tape. " _When I get my train fair, I'll get up and run, I'm ready for the city, air pollution here I come. Cause' I'm a fool for the city_."

There was a _Taxago_ sign off in the distance, its blue star on top of a yellow background hard to miss among the plain white streetlights that dotted the roads, and since there was still no traffic to be seen, it wasn't like he had to worry about lane changes or wide right turns. So he made his way toward the sign, getting annoyed at how many turns he had to make just to cover such a short distance, but finally the parking lot came into view.

Usually with city gas stations like this, Reggie would have to carefully navigate his way through a parking lot full of idiots who didn't know how to drive their tiny little cars, in order to reach the big-rig diesel pumps around the back. However, the parking lots of every business he passed, including this gas station, were empty, so the driver casually made his way around the petroleum pumps, before parking next to the one that he needed.

" _Oh, all my money goes down the tank_." He sang to himself as he turned off the radio and engine. " _Oh, all my money goes_ … a dollar and five cents _a gallon_?! For _diesel_?! What do these crooks think we are, _millionaires_?"

Having noticed the Taxago price sign after opening the cab door, Reggie continued to gripe about how much the prices for gas had gone up since the eighties, but there was a little good news at least. It seemed that Raccoon City hadn't fallen into that whole _pay before you pump_ nonsense that was sweeping the nation, so he opened the tank, turned on the pump, and set the auto-shutoff pin so that it would fill his tank while he was inside the store.

To tell the truth, this was the first time in his life that he had gone to a gas station and no one else was around, and the awkward silence of it all was starting to give him the creeps. In fact the whole atmosphere of the city was starting to feel wrong, now that he was paying attention, and to him that meant that he needed to leave as fast as possible. Walking back around to the front of the station, the front doors slid open for him when he approached, and sure enough the inside of the store was just as empty as the parking lot.

"Hey, buddy." The driver called, spotting someone leaning on the doorway to the manager's office. "I'm fillin' up on number two, diesel."

The man didn't respond, still facing away while lingering in the doorway; probably wearing headphones or getting chewed out by the night manager for something. Wasn't important though… what mattered was that he wasn't the only person around anymore, and this immediately made him feel more comfortable as he moved over to the store's beverage coolers. It was tempting to grab a few beers, but probably not a good idea since he was going to be on the road all night, so instead he grabbed a couple cans of that energy drink, _Josta_.

"All right, now we're cookin'." Reggie declared happily as he brought the drinks and a bag of beef jerky up to the register. "This, the diesel, and a pack of _Camel Lights_ , please."

Still there was no response, and the guy hadn't moved a muscle the whole time that the driver was in the store. The guy was breathing, and making a weird kind of grunting sound, so… was he asleep? Calling out to him again, the store clerk was still unmoved, so Reggie decided to wake him up. After all, it was better than the _manager_ catching him, so the driver walked around the corner, and put his hand on the guy's shoulder.

"Hey, buddy, naptime's over." Reggie said, shaking him a little. "Come on, man, don't want the boss to…

Suddenly the driver's words turned into a frightened gasp as the _really_ unhealthy looking clerk turned around, and the frightened gasp turned into an outcry of pain and shock when the clerk grabbed his arm and bit him like a wild animal. Blood started to drip out of the clerk's mouth as his jaws kept clamping down harder and harder, and he managed to hang on during Reggie's attempt to get away, resulting in both of them stumbling over toward the full-length windows.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" The driver screamed, trying to pry the clerk's teeth out of his arm. "Get off me, you crazy bastard!"

Finally balling up his free hand into a fist, and slugging the clerk in the mouth, this blow was enough to free him, but the wound had been made even larger since the clerk's teeth had been ripped out of him sideways instead of being pulled straight. Reggie's arm was bleeding profusely, and the clerk lunged toward him again as soon as he regained his balance. Reflexively stepping backwards to avoid being grabbed again, the driver ducked down and came back up again with an uppercut that caught the deranged clerk right under the jaw.

The clerk's head was tilted backwards as far as it could go, causing the rest of his body to follow as he was knocked off balance, and ending with the deranged man slamming right into the windows. The glass shattered as the clerk fell through to the sidewalk outside, and the broken pieces fell onto him like a brief rain, but by that time Reggie was already on his way back toward his truck. Abandoning his snacks and drinks, and _almost_ forgetting to pull the nozzle out of his fuel tank, he climbed up into the truck, and locked the door once it was closed.

"Fucking maniac!" He yelled, starting the engine. "Fucking bit me… I can't believe this shit!"

Maybe it was the shock of everything that was happening, but his whole body was feeling warm, and he was starting to sweat as well, like he was coming down with a fever or something. Oh, well, he could pick up some medicine at the _next_ town, he thought as he drove toward the parking lot exit. Now, the way back up to the highway was to the left… or had he come in from the right? The attack must have shaken him up more than he thought, because he was having trouble remembering the way he had come… and he was starting to get itchy.

"I hate this fucking city." The driver grumbled as he pulled out onto the road. "Fucking maniacs _biting_ people… who does that? Seriously, _who_?!"

Wiping the heavy beads of sweat from his forehead, Reggie realized that the outskirts of Raccoon City were suddenly not so easy to navigate anymore. Mile after mile he drove through the empty streets, searching for the entrance ramp back to the highway, but only finding more discomfort as time went by. His skin was crawling now, making him itch all over, and he was pretty sure that he had a high fever now, too. On top of that, the streetlights outside seemed so bright that he had to put up his hand in order to see the road.

"Breaker… breaker." He struggled to say through labored breaths. "Anyone on… I'm _10-38_ in Raccoon… City… on… don't know where… I… am."

The receiver fell from his hand, and Reggie had to catch himself by putting his hand on the tape deck, causing the song _Fool for the City_ to resume playing. He tried to find the receiver again, but failed… but then something caught his eye. It was a flashing of red and blue lights... a cop car as it made a wild turn onto the street in front of him and started driving away. Well, this was good news, he thought, trying to find the horn to use as a signal… but failing. If he could flag down the cops, then they would be able to see that he was in trouble and… and they would see… and they would… they… would… help…

Frustrated at his sudden inability to even think straight, and now becoming justifiably frightened by the situation, the driver tried to scream in anger, but all that came out was a kind of groaning sound as he struggled to keep following the police car.


	5. Chapter 5 Unescapable Destiny

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Five: Unescapable Destiny**

The girl that Leon had found at the café was keeping up with him as they ran down the sidewalk, and thankfully the deranged people, although strong and prone to violence, did not seem to move very fast. They pursued nonetheless, groaning and reaching their arms out as they were left behind, but even though the initial group that had ambushed the young man was long gone, there were plenty of others to take their place.

Only moments before, Raccoon City had appeared completely abandoned, but now there were dozens upon _dozens_ of the deranged people coming out of the woodwork. However, the harsh reality of the situation was that, even though the deranged population was unable to corner them for the moment, Leon honestly had no idea where he was going. His jeep was no longer a possibility, having been long lost amongst the growing sea of… whatever the hell was wrong with these people, and that probably meant that the girl's vehicle was back there as well.

Suddenly a small group of the deranged people appeared in front of them to block their path, groaning and drooling as they shambled forward, but still leaving enough room for the two of them to evade. It was a close one though, with Leon having to strike one of them across the mouth with his pistol, and grab the girl's arm to help her take the unexpected left turn across the crosswalk without getting caught by them.

She stumbled a bit, but quickly regained her balance, allowing the two of them to escape to the other side of the street. This didn't solve the problem of where he was leading her, however, and with Leon's already breathing heavily, it was only a matter of time before they would have to slow down. The girl was feeling the effects of the run even more heavily than he was; huffing and puffing, with sweat beading up on her forehead, but how was he supposed to…

"There!" He exclaimed, interrupting his own thoughts as something caught his eye. "Come on!"

Almost immediately after reaching the end of the crosswalk, the two of them had rounded the corner of a building, and there sitting at the entrance to a small alley, was a police car. The lights and engine were off, but the doors were open, and there was no sign of the officer that it belonged to. The car was a gamble, since it could provide them with a way to escape the shambling hoard, but only if the keys were inside. If they were _not_ , however… then they would be trapped.

The girl broke off from him, circling around the car to get into the passenger side, while Leon jumped into the driver's seat. They then slammed and locked the doors, rolling the windows up just as their deranged pursuers caught up. The drooling, groaning people smacked the windows and climbed onto the car, making the girl yelp and scoot up to the center console while the young man searched for the keys. For a moment he started to panic, since they weren't in the ignition, but then the girl jumped back again, bumping his upturned sun-visor… and the keys fell into his lap.

"Buckle up." Leon said as he started the engine. "Here we go."

The people outside were clearly trying to kill them, so the young man didn't feel too concerned about their safety as he put the car in _reverse_ , and stomped on the gas. The deranged people were caught completely by surprise when the car moved, throwing most of them off, and making the car bounce with a thud-thud-thud, as some of them became trapped under the tires. Now backing up onto the main road, Leon turned so that they were facing away from the gathering hoard, put the car in _drive_ , and left them in the dust.

"Okay, what the _fuck_ just happened?!" The girl exclaimed, stopping Leon's attempt to relax. "I thought I was lucky with traffic, but then that guy was biting Emmy's _face_ off, and then that guy tried to bite me, and I had to hit him with a pan… oh, my God, I think I _killed_ him!"

"Hey, everything's going to be all right." Leon tried to convince both her and himself. "Those people can't hurt you now, and I'm taking you somewhere safe… police station's probably our best bet. You aren't hurt or anything, are you? Can you tell me your name? Do you live around here?"

The girl seemed to be slowly calming down, although constantly looking in the side-view mirror to make sure that they weren't being followed, and taking incredibly deep breaths to stop herself from shaking. This was completely understandable, given the circumstances, since Leon's hands were shaking a little as well, and this whole… whatever the _hell_ was going on around here, wasn't exactly something covered at the police academy.

"Claire." She finally said, slowly leaning back in the seat. "Claire Redfield… you probably know my brother, Chris… he's on the _S.T.A.R.S._ team… and Jesus Christ, could you have parked your car _any_ further away? I thought I was gonna bust a _lung_ back there, officer…

"Kennedy… Leon Kennedy." He replied, swerving to avoid an empty stopped car. "Afraid I don't know your brother, though; I'm one of the replacements they brought in to help deal with the riots… but I'm starting to think that things are worse around here than I was told."

Claire did a little scoffing laugh after he said this, and then admitted that she also had no idea what was going on in the city. Apparently she had left for college about a year ago, and gotten back this evening after there was no contact with her brother for over a month. The girl then pointed to the left, saying that the upcoming road was a faster route to the RPD, and he might have hit the curve a little faster than expected, resulting with Claire being momentarily shove dup against her door… and them needing a quick acceleration in order to avoid being hit by the eighteen wheeler that he had just cut off.

"Holy shit, _where_ did you learn to drive?!" Claire scolded as they left the truck behind.

"Hey, I didn't expect anyone else to be on the road." Leon snapped back. "Must be going to the police station, too… there's probably _lots_ of people there."

The large truck got further behind, but it was swerving a little as well… wait, it was going straight again, so he would just catch up with the driver once they all reached the police station. For now there didn't seem to be any more obstructions in the road, aside from seeing the random, and very deranged, person standing on the sidewalk. Each one reached out and shambled forward when they passed, making the young man feel very lucky that they had found this patrol car, and…

"I'm sorry… for what I said earlier." The girl said, interrupting his thoughts. "I can be a real _ass_ when I get upset, and you _did_ save my life back there, so I'm sorry, and… thank you… I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't shown up when you did."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Leon replied. "I'm a cop, remember? It's my job to look out for you civilians, and don't worry, nothing's going to happen to you as long as I'm…

Suddenly something moved from behind the seats, and then both of them screamed when another deranged person, this time one in a police uniform, dove over the center console. Snarling and drooling, the deranged cop grabbed wildly at them, causing the police car to start fishtailing across the street. Claire punched the lunatic, hitting him in the head several times with her fist and elbow, but accomplishing nothing… and then she reached down for something on her belt.

With a sharp click the blade of her pocket knife opened, and the girl stabbed it right into the deranged cop's eye, making him collapse. The good news was that the lunatic was no longer a threat, but the bad news was that when he collapsed, he landed on Leon's arms, causing the patrol car to spin out. Still at top speed, the tired squealed as the city outside swirled around, but then everything stopped when the trunk slammed into a telephone pole.

It was a good thing that Claire had buckled up, because all of the car's windows were shattered by the impact, the whole rear end was crushed inward, and the deranged cop was thrown out the back like a rag-doll. He bounced off of what was left of the trunk, and busted his head open on the telephone pole, before falling to the ground, out of sight. The car was obviously a total loss, judging by the smoke that was now coming out from underneath the hood… and the fluids leaking onto the ground… and the one tire that was bent almost all the way up.

"Are you okay, Claire?" Leon asked, looking over at her.

"Yeah, I think so." She replied, catching her breath. "I think my knife is still in that guy's… no, you know what, he can keep it."

For a second there was silence, and then both of them started to snicker, coughing and laughing at how ridiculous everything was that was happening around them. This lightened the mood a little, even though they were going to have to walk from then on, and the young man was just unbuckling his seatbelt, when a light was shined into his eyes. At first he thought that it was someone who had seen the accident checking on them, but when he looked through the broken windshield, Leon's mouth ran dry at what he saw.

"Get out." He barely managed to say as the light got more intense. "Get out… Claire, get out!"

The girl looked up, and gasped when she saw that it wasn't a flashlight that was shining on her, but the headlights of a rapidly approaching eighteen wheeler. Claire managed to get her seatbelt unbuckled, and they were both able to catch a glimpse of the heavily deranged looking driver behind the wheel, before jumping out of the car. The impact came only seconds after Leon got out, the truck slamming into what was left of the patrol car at full speed, and the force of the resulting explosion knocking him off his feet.

When the young man was able to start moving again a few seconds later, his ears were ringing, and all he could see around himself was fire. The flames from the crash had spread to the nearby buildings, blocking off the entire junction with an impenetrable barrier of heat and smoke, leaving him cut off from using any street besides the one he was on… and not allowing him to see whether or not Claire was safe.

"Leon?!" A voice called as his ears stopped ringing. "Leon, are you okay?! The road's blocked, I can't see you!"

"Claire!" He called back, coughing as he got up to his knees. "Claire… I'm all right! Go… go to the police station! I'll meet you there!"

If the girl replied, Leon didn't hear her, instead coughing again as he sunk back down to all fours so that he head could have a chance to stop hurting. Now all he could hear was the crackling of the flames… and a soft groan. This got his attention, and now the young man looked around to see that there were more of the deranged people… some of whom were _literally_ on fire as they walked right through the truck's wreckage, meaning that it was time to get moving.

There was a lot of effort involved for him to get up, and even more to keep from stumbling when he started moving down the only street available, and as Leon tried to keep away from the approaching lunatics, he could only hope that Claire would be all right on her own.


	6. Chapter 6 The Kendo Brothers

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Six: The Kendo Brothers**

"Go… go to the police station!" Leon's voice called from beyond the flaming wreckage. "I'll meet you there!"

The crash between the eighteen wheeler and the police car was so intense that Claire had been thrown sideways onto the hood of yet another stopped vehicle. The wind had been knocked out of her, and the hood had been heavily dented, but other than that she was unharmed… until rolling off the car and suddenly regretting wearing jean-shorts when her knees were scraped against the pavement.

Then again, getting out of an explosion that blocked every road except the one behind her with a wall of fire, with only skinned knees was pretty lucky, so the young woman leaned on the car as she got to her feet. The deranged people were still around, some of them now on fire from getting too close to the explosion, but even with as crazy as the people of Raccoon City had become, how were they able to simply ignore having their _entire body_ engulfed in flames?

Regardless of the explanation, they were managing it, meaning that Claire needed to get moving before they surrounded her. This was going to be much more difficult now, given that she had lost both her knife, _and_ Leon… along with his gun… huh, maybe she should have just taken fall classes after all. The deranged, and now burning people were slowly getting closer, so the young woman turned away from the wreckage, and began making her way down the street.

Now farther into Raccoon City, Claire noticed that where the outskirts were mostly untouched, this was no longer the case. Everywhere she looked, there were car crashes, or businesses with boarded up doors and windows, as if some of the people had tried to protect their property from… whatever was happening… but what happened to _them_ then? Had the business owners escaped? Had they, um… become _part_ of this problem?

Her thoughts were interrupted when another deranged person, this time a woman in an expensive looking dress, grabbed at her from out of the shadows. Claire jumped back and managed to avoid her, but in doing so nearly leapt right into the arms of the closest one pursuing her from behind. Reflexively letting out a scream of fright, the young woman did a sort of clumsy sideways dive to avoid being caught, which resulted in her having to make a mad scramble to get up again before yet another deranged person was able to get her.

"Get away from me!" Claire yelled, just barely avoiding him.

This whole situation was ridiculous, she couldn't help thinking as she moved around a newspaper stand in an attempt to put some distance between herself and the hoard. It was like one of those stupid _Living Dead_ movies that her brother used to watch, but then there was no more time for criticism when she tripped over an exposed piece of rebar that was sticking out of the sidewalk.

Hitting the ground, and rolling over into an awkward kind of crab-walk, Claire had to kick one of the deranged people in the face when he dove at her to grab her ankle; a few teeth flying out when her heel slammed into his mouth. This blow didn't seem to actually hurt him at all, instead just make his whole body twitch for a second, although it did give her enough time to kick his hand away in order for her to escape.

Now back to crab-walking, the young woman remembered making fun of all the girls in Chris's horror movies who couldn't run more than five steps without falling on their faces… and now felt bad about that since she had just done the same thing. But this wasn't some _movie_ … this was _real_ , and she had no intention of ending up like Emmy. Feeling nauseous for a moment while remembering what it had been like to see the café owner having her face bitten off, the young woman was suddenly filled with a rush of adrenaline that allowed her to get up and start running again.

The only good thing she could see about the deranged people was how slowly they moved, and just like she had done earlier with Leon, running kept her out of their reach. The police station wasn't too much farther away, so all Claire had to do was keep up this pace… which she could have done if the road wasn't blocked when she rounded the next corner. Unlike before, where it was caused by a crash, this time there was an actual wall in her way. Well, not a _wall_ , really, more like a hastily assembled police barrier that was designed to keep these lunatics from overrunning the rest of the city.

"No!" She screamed, shaking the barrier. "Help! Anyone, help! I'm not like them! Somebody help me, please!"

There were no cops around that she could see, and the barrier was too tall and well made for her to climb, essentially leaving her trapped while half a dozen of her pursuers closed in. There were pieces of debris on the ground; bricks and metal mostly, so she started throwing them at the deranged people while continuing to scream for help. These improvised weapons did next to nothing, even when they hit her pursuers in the head, and so far no one had shown up to rescue her. But if there wasn't a guarded safe zone on the other side, then what was the barrier for?

Up until now, the young woman had held onto hope that there were still normal people around, but what if… what if she and Leon were the _only_ normal ones left? This didn't seem to matter much as the small hoard closed in, but then something moved in the corner of her eye… it was the door to one of the nearby businesses, and it was opening. At first Claire thought that the figure standing in the doorway was just another lunatic, but then he aimed what looked like a gun, and her rear-most pursuer fell over sideways while the streets echoed with the unmistakable _bang_ of a shotgun.

"Hey, you!" The large man yelled before firing again. " _You_! Get your ass over here, quick! Come on!"

Each time he fired the weapon, another of the deranged people fell to the ground, and after that third shot, a path had opened up for her. So Claire ran for it, crying out in fear as she ran right through the opening in the hoard, and stumbling through the open door as quickly as she could. Tripping on the bumper at the bottom of the doorframe, the young woman found herself once again falling on her face, but thankfully the large man was more concerned in slamming the door shut, than making fun of her.

"Holy _shit_ , that was close." The large man said, locking the door's deadbolt. "What the hell were you _thinking_ , running around the streets like that? There's too many of them to make a run for it, and all the extra supplies got looted a long time… Claire? Claire _Redfield_?"

At first she was confused to hear her own name being spoken all of a sudden, but as the young woman caught her breath and started to calm down, this place began to look familiar. It was a single, open room, with two shop counters that sat in front of large rack displays along the wall. The glass that had once protected the rack and counter displays was shattered across the carpet, and the displays themselves were empty, as if the place had been raided, but that didn't stop her from realizing where she was.

"Mr. Kendo!" She exclaimed happily, jumping to her feet.

Rushing over to the large man, and hugging him, Claire was now starting to feel safe for the first time since entering the city. It was incredibly lucky that she had stumbled her way over to the _Kendo Gun Shop_ , and the man who had saved her was Robert Kendo, who had run the shop with his brother, Joseph, ever since their father passed away some years ago. She knew them through her brother, since this place was where the RPD sent their firearms in for repairs, as well as any customizations that were needed for all those mysterious _S.T.A.R.S._ missions that Chris was always going on.

"What are you even doing here, Claire?" Mr. Kendo asked once the hug ended. "I thought you went off to college."

Explaining her concern for Chris as the reason for her sudden return, Claire was disappointed to hear that no one had seen her brother for quite some time. Apparently after S.T.A.R.S. was disbanded, the man had simply vanished after giving a brief newspaper interview, along with everyone else who had survived the incident last summer. After that the reports of rioting started from up north, and before anyone realized what was happening, the streets were filled with what could only be described as _zombies_.

"Zombies?!" The young woman exclaimed. "I thought they were on _drugs_ , or had _Leprosy_ or something."

"No one really knows for sure." Mr. Kendo replied with a shrug. "But you're welcome to stay here with me and Joe, and I _promise_ you this is the safest place around. We gave most of our weapons out to the people a few weeks ago, but the door's solid, and no zombie is gonna get through _those_ window shutters."

She was comforted by the heavy metal shutters covering the windows, and Mr. Kendo's shotgun had proven to be pretty effective against what he called _the zombies_ … which was now seeming like a more fitting name than just considering them to be _deranged_. Mr. Kendo continued to talk as he dumped out the last of his box of shells onto the counter, mentioning that before getting trapped, he and Joe had been planning to high-tail it over to _Stone Ville_ , not that this plan was possible now.

"Yeah, looks like we waited just a little too long." He said as he finished reloading. "Good thing, though, because if we _had_ gotten out, you'd have been in a lot of trouble out there, darlin'. Hey, Joe's gonna be _real_ happy to see you… he's taking a nap in the office; got into a scuffle with a zombie yesterday, and I guess it really took it out of him."

It would be nice to see Joe again, since he was more than ten years younger and _far_ better looking than his brother, but now Claire couldn't get her mind off of the fact that the only reason she was alive right now was because the Kendos had been trapped there. Well, there was also Leon's timely rescue from Emmy's, meaning that… wow, she thought… if either of them hadn't been in Raccoon City…

"Hey, Joe, you'll never guess who's here." Mr. Kendo said, opening the office door. "It's Redfield's sister, Claire, and you better be careful, cause' she's looking _really_ cute these…

Suddenly his words became a scream as his brother, now snarling and drooling like the others, grabbed onto Mr. Kendo the moment the door opened all the way. Without hesitation, Joe sunk his teeth into his brother's neck, causing them both to fall to the floor during Mr. Kendo's attempt to get away, and sending the shotgun sliding across the floor as blood started to pool around them.


	7. Chapter 7 Alternate Routes

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Seven: Alternate Routes**

Still hurting from the blast, Leon decided that he needed to play it smart in order to get past all of the deranged people that had been drawn out of hiding by the light and noise, so he took cover behind the first stopped car that he came across. Crouching down behind it, he watched underneath while the shambling feet of his pursuers moved toward the wreckage, and the moment the coast was clear, he moved again.

Staying crouched down so to leave a less-visible profile, the young man took the situation one step at a time, but only until the opportunity to leave the main road presented itself. After traveling the distance of about a residential block, he ducked into an alleyway that ran between buildings, sighing with relief when he found that none of those lunatics were following. His only worry though, as he made his way toward the police station, was whether or not Claire was going to be okay on her own.

She had seemed so frightened by what was happening in Raccoon City, and now that her knife had been lost inside the skull of one of their pursuers, she was pretty much unarmed. That, and she didn't have the benefit of police training, regardless of anything her brother might have taught her… bottom line, she was scared and alone, and that bothered Leon. The sound of deranged moaning reached his ears, interrupting these thoughts as he pressed his back up against the nearby wall in an attempt to stay hidden, and then the young man remembered that he had _himself_ to worry about, on top of Claire.

Up ahead there was a stopped truck… well, more of a crashed truck that was sitting part of the way through a broken building wall, but either way it meant that Leon would have to find another way around. Going back to the main road was not something that he wanted to do, so the only other option came from an area between him and the truck that was blocked by a fifteen-foot high chain-link fence. Past the fence was what looked like a heavily neglected basketball court, and past that… who knows?

The good news was that there was a metal gate in the center of the chain-link fence, both in front of him and on the other side of the basketball court, meaning that he had a way through… but the bad news was that there were about half a dozen of the discolored, groaning people wandering around inside. They were younger, each wearing black shorts and a torn up yellow jersey that had distinct names and numbers… like they had been a bunch of teenagers who had been caught in the middle of a game when… whatever it was that happened… happened.

There wasn't anything he could do for them, or any of the _other_ deranged people wandering the streets, at least until he learned more about what was going on. There were also not enough bullets left in his pistol to take them on, so Leon would have to be exceptionally quiet in order to get past them. Luckily none of them were facing him at the time, so the young man crept over to the gate, carefully pulled down the latch, and then pushed open the gate with an incredibly loud, metallic _screech_.

"Oh, God damn it." He grumbled to himself as all of the deranged people turned toward him. "Good job, Leon."

Moaning and rasping with outstretched hands, the derange and discolored teenagers started to shamble toward him, and they had been all spread out around the court, leaving no obvious way to get past them. Briefly considering going back the way he came, the young man stopped when he realized that them chasing him back to the main road would only attract more attention, meaning that he had to stay.

The more time Leon spent thinking about this, the closer his pursuers came, and he was just about to start using the last of his bullets, when he noticed something. The closer the deranged teenagers came, the closer they got to each other, and soon a possible avenue of escape was starting to form along the outer perimeter. Of course, at the rate they were clumping together was not as fast as their approach, so it looked like he was going to have to deal with, at the very least, the closest one.

Trying to back into the corner as far as he could, since he still didn't want to use up any bullets, and in doing so the young man nearly tripped over a basketball. The nearest one was almost in arms reach from him now, and as ridiculous as it was, Leon didn't have any other choice but to pick up the basketball, and throw it at the deranged teenager's head. It struck him in the face with a hard _thump_ , making him groan and flail his arms a bit while stumbling backwards, and allowing Leon to make a break for it.

The other deranged teenagers moaned, reaching out for him as the young man ran past, and then he turned sharply, having to do a sort of kick off of the wall in order to keep the nearest one from grabbing him as he kept moving along the perimeter. This wall kick was supposed to be a graceful maneuver, but nearly made him fall on his face, and caused the remainder of the run to the far gate to be more of an awkward stumble. Well, at least he had finally reached the gate… well, truth be told, he ran right into it, trying to keep his balance, but he had reached it nonetheless, and now all he had to do was pull the latch, and…

"Shit." He said when it didn't open. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!"

There was no padlock, but the latch itself seemed to be fused, or heavily jammed in a way that just wouldn't come loose no matter how hard the young man pulled on it, kicked it, or rammed his shoulder into it. Shooting it wasn't an option, since there was no padlock, and his pursuers were gaining once again, leaving Leon no choice but to climb the fence. Thankfully, the police academy had covered wall-scaling extensively, so it was an easy thing for him to make his way up to the top… but he had to stop before climbing down on the other side, since now there were even more of the deranged people waiting for him.

Realizing that his attempts to force the gate open had probably attracted them, the young man was at a loss for how he was going to get out of this. After all, his pursuers were on both sides, leaving him looking like a cat stuck up a tree with no way down… unless he took a different approach. On both ends of the fence, there was a building that was only a few feet higher, so Leon carefully shimmied his way along the top bar, and realized that he was going to have to stand up all the way in order to reach the building's rooftop.

"Damn it, cut it out!" He yelled down at his pursuers who were now shaking the fence. "Damn it!"

Well, they weren't really _shaking_ it… more like randomly grabbing onto the chain-link while reaching upward for him, but at least they didn't seem to be able to climb it. Of course, they wouldn't _have_ to climb if they managed to knock him down, so he very carefully tried to move with the fence-shaking, putting his hands on the building's wall to steady himself. It took a few attempts, but eventually the young man was able to grab onto the edge of the room when he stood at full height.

Now holding tightly onto the roof, Leon jumped up, and swung his legs over the edge, sighing with relief once he had reached the safety of the building's rooftop. The strange part was that the deranged people down below seemed to lose interest the moment he was out of sight, almost immediately stopping with their moaning and fence shaking. They didn't wander off though, instead simply remaining exactly where they were, as if waiting to be brought to life by the next unlucky bastard who came by.

"Can't rest yet, Leon." He said to himself. "Gotta get to the RPD… Claire needs you."

Rolling over so that he could stand up, Leon was first happy that there didn't seem to be anyone else on the roof with him… and also that he was able to see the front gate of the police station. It was still about a block away, and he saw it from between more buildings, but it was a hell of a lot closer than when he started, so the young man started moving across the roof while looking for another way down. What he found was a metal service ladder that was bolted to the building's far side, but there was a problem.

The ladder was one of those designed to get access to the air conditioning ducts that were scattered across the roof, and the owners _clearly_ didn't want anyone climbing up there who was up to no good, which was probably why there was a metal cage around the entire thing. The cage was built to be nearly impossible to climb, and although there was a padlock, it was at the bottom, and although the young man considered himself to be a good shot… he wasn't _that_ good.

Getting desperate for a way down, Leon looked over the edge of both walls at the corner, first seeing an old fashioned metal bar fence with those spiked tops, and he _certainly_ didn't want to jump on top of those. On the other side of the corner, there was a long white bus that had crashed into several other cars right below, forcing one end up higher into the air. The bus's roof looked slippery and hard, not something he wanted to dive onto… however, that decision was no longer his to make, when a noise suddenly came from behind.

Turns out that there _was_ someone else on the roof with him after all; a man with discolored skin and glazed over eyes, who was now grabbing at him. The good news was that Leon managed to break free of the man's grip, and then bring his foot up in order to boot the deranged man in the chest. The even better news was that the man fell right over the edge of the roof, and a second later there was a stabbing sound when he was impaled onto the fence that Leon had spotted before.

However, the bad news was that the perfectly executed kick had left the young man off balance… so much, in fact, that he was now wobbling back and forth on the other edge of the corner, flailing his arms in an attempt to catch himself on something, only there was nothing to grab onto. Eventually gravity won the struggle, and Leon couldn't help screaming as he fell down toward the bus, crashing right through the metal roof, and down into the interior.


	8. Chapter 8 Landing Zone

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Eight: Landing Zone**

Having only just begun to feel safe in the presence of Mr. Kendo, the word _shock_ was not quite a strong enough word for what Claire felt when she saw Joe attack his brother out of nowhere. Mr. Kendo had described the deranged people that she had seen wandering the streets as _zombies_ , and now that the young woman saw the bold pooling around Mr. Kendo while Joe's teeth ripped into his throat… she realized that this really _was_ an accurate description for what the people of Raccoon City had become.

Being raised by a tough guy like Chris Redfield, Claire never believed that she could be one of those girls who just stood there while someone was getting attacked, but there she was, unable to move. After only a couple seconds, Mr. Kendo stopped moving, but it was only after Joe turned his head to look slowly up at her, that the young woman's paralysis was broken. Joe groaned, blood and ripped flesh falling from his discolored mouth as he started to get up, but at the same time Claire picked up the fallen shotgun from the floor.

"Stop!" She yelled, cocking the weapon and aiming at him. "Joe, stop!"

He ignored her, continuing to stand up until at his full height, and then he reached out while rushing toward her… only to be thrown backwards when she pulled the trigger. The shell tore through Joe's chest, throwing a splatter of blood while the shop echoed with a loud _bang_ , and then the younger Kendo brother was sent crashing through the empty display counter behind him. The zombie was cut several times by the glass as it shattered around him, and then just as quickly as the tension had risen, the Kendo Gun Shop was silent.

With the barrel still smoking, Claire kept the weapon aimed at the motionless zombie that had once been Joe Kendo, and only now was her mind starting to be able to make sense of, well… _everything_. Apparently, Raccoon City had been completely overrun by these monsters in recent weeks, but even with as violent and deranged as they were, it still had _not_ felt good to gun down an old family friend. But what was making everyone this way? Was it some kind of new street drug? Was it some kind of strange sickness from the Congo or something?

From what she had seen of the small crowds that had chased her and Leon, these zombies only seemed to attack people who were not like them. But then why did some people become zombies, while others didn't? Could it be something in the air, she wondered? Suddenly filled with dread at the possibility of becoming like the zombies at any time, Claire remembered that Emmy's skin hadn't been discolored in the café, so she had still been normal when attacked… a fact that made the young woman feel both relieved and sickened at the same time.

Suddenly pulled from her thoughts by the sound of moaning, the young woman's eyes widened when she saw that the sound was not coming from more zombies trying to get in… but from Joe Kendo as he started to move around. Blood was still oozing out of his chest wound as he started to roll over in an attempt to get up, but that shouldn't have been possible. Her shell had hit him right where the heart was supposed to be, but apparently the younger Kendo didn't agree with her on the lethality.

The zombie was now up to his hands and knees, and Claire was cocking the shotgun to shoot him again, when she cried out in surprise… jumping backwards when the now discolored and moaning Robert Kendo tried to grab her ankle. Growling, with air escaping from his recent neck wound, Mr. Kendo tried to grab her again, only to roll over as well after realizing that she was too far away. Up until now the young woman had accepted this whole zombie thing as maybe some form of sickness… but Robert Kendo had been _dead_.

As much as Claire tried to keep her hands from shaking, which only added to her fear as the zombie Kendo brothers slowly advanced toward her, she was unable to. It was strange… having watched dozens of those _Living Dead_ movies with Chris growing up, the young woman had always imagined herself as someone who would stay cool during a zombie apocalypse, and hell, might even enjoy fighting them off, like it were some kind of video game. However, now that she was faced with _actual_ zombies, including ones that she had seen as normal humans only moments ago… there was no staying cool.

Bottom line: She was terrified. Raccoon City had become some kind of nightmare world, and now Claire was trapped inside a place that used to hold good memories… with the bleeding and groaning Kendo brothers closing in as she backed away. With as on edge as she was, it scared her so much when her back hit the wall, that her body tensed up, causing her to pull the trigger. _Bang!_ There was a flash of light and sound as the shell slammed into Mr. Kendo's head and upper chest, making him stumble backwards into Joe, resulting in the two of them falling back to the floor… but more importantly… Claire found herself able to move again.

There was no way she could go back the way she came, but there was another door on the far side of the shop, so she ran past the fallen zombies, and grabbed the knob. Panicking for a second when the door wouldn't open, the young woman felt silly when she realized that the dead-bolt was locked form the inside, so she turned it with a sharp _click_ , and shoved the door open. Not wanting to be followed outside, Claire slammed the door shut as soon as she was through, and then there was a loud metallic _screech_ when she pushed a nearby, and very heavy garbage can in front of it.

Now that she was out of danger for the moment, the young woman needed a moment to collect herself, and who _wouldn't_ after going through something like that? So she sat down on the garbage can, trying to catch her breath while thinking of her next move. The good news was that the series of alleyways behind the gun shop would lead her right to the back parking lot of the police station, but that was only if there were no obstructions between here and there. The bad news was that there could only be a few shells left in the shotgun, so she was going to have to be careful about attracting attention to herself.

Startled out of her rest early when the closed door behind her bumped into the garbage can, Claire gasped, jumping up to her feet as she heard one of the Kendo brothers moaning from back inside. So she ran, trying to avoid tripping over any of the junk that was scattered down the alley, and slowing down just enough to make sure that there weren't any zombies waiting around the corner before making a turn. This was the same route that the RPD used to bring broken weapons and pick up orders from the gun shop, and the young woman remembered it being a pretty short walk, but for some reason tonight it felt like it was taking forever.

Thankfully, she was alone in the alleys, and it stayed that way until Claire spotted the blue and red lights of another patrol car just before exiting the narrow path. Unfortunately, the heavy rollup shutter was down, blocking her way into the parking garage, and the patrol car she had spotted was in no shape to move anywhere. Two of the tires were flat, and the windows were busted out… of course, this was all a moot point, since there was another one of those makeshift barriers blocking the road out.

"Great." Claire said to herself, looking around for other options. "Okay, Claire, think… what would…

Her words stopped as a new sound reached her ears… it was a sort of rhythmic whirring that came from… above? The sound got louder for several seconds, and then a searchlight passed along the ground as a helicopter came into view. It was still a good distance off, but that was fine since as far as the young woman knew, the only place to land around there was on the roof of the RPD. That meant that the helicopter was going to land on the roof just a short distance away, and Claire couldn't believe her luck… but how was she going to get up there?

Aside from the parking garage, the only way into the police station from this side was blocked by an eight foot tall chain-link fence. Well, there was a gate, but it had a heavy padlock, and a shotgun shell was probably not the best thing for shooting it off. With her luck the pellets would just ruin the lock so that it couldn't be opened, but the helicopter was getting closer, so she had to do something. Bending down and sliding the shotgun underneath the gate, Claire backed up and got a running start, leaping up onto the gate, and skillfully climbing over the top.

The skillfulness ended there, however, when she swung her legs over the top, only to lose her footing, and scream as she tumbled down onto the pavement walkway below. Thankfully, her rear took most of the hit, and this was probably the only time in her life that she wished she wasn't so skinny, since a little more cushion back there might have left her feeling a little less sore. Rubbing her left side as she tried to get up, the young woman found herself limping a little when she moved to pick up the shotgun, but at least now there was a clear run to the landing zone.

Walking got gradually easier as she moved down the walkway, but she was still a little sore when it came time to start up the staircase that led to the landing zone. By now the helicopter was right overhead, its rotors drowning out almost all other sounds when Claire reached the roof, but its searchlight reacting quickly when a door on the far side was thrown open. A stocky looking man in an RPD uniform came rushing out an instant later, trying to shut the door behind him, only to be pushed back by a small group of zombies that got their arms in the way before he could.

Backing away from the door, and using one hand to talk into his radio, presumably to the pilot, he yelled into the receiver while using his other hand to aim and shoot the automatic rifle that was slung over his shoulder. Claire couldn't hear the conversation, or even the gunshots because of the loud rotors overhead, but his weapon seemed to be effective against his pursuers; knocking some down and staggering others that came out through the door. A rope ladder was dropped down from the helicopter once the officer reached the center of the landing zone, and Claire was about to run over in order to catch a ride, herself…

"Behind you!" Claire screamed, waving and pointing. "Behind you! Look out!"

Her words were muffled by the helicopter, but the officer had seen her, and was now motioning for her to go with him… unaware of the three zombies that had shambled out of the small maintenance shed behind him. The young woman continued to wave and scream, but it was too late. The officer was still motioning to her when the first zombie grabbed him by the shoulder, but he was able to spin around and strike it in the face with his rifle.

Of course, this spin caused him to lose his balance, falling onto his back as the other zombies closed in. He had just gotten up to a sitting position when the next zombie dove onto him, and naturally the officer started shooting, but his bullets went wild as the others dove onto him as well. A bullet struck the guardrail next to Claire, making her gasp as she ducked down, but now that the zombies were biting the officer, most of his bullets were going straight up… into the bottom of the helicopter.

Several holes appeared in the bottom of the vehicle, and then black smoke started to be expelled from the rotors as the helicopter started to spin out of control. The good news was that the officer had managed to fight his way out from under the zombies, but the bad news was that the helicopter landed right on top of him… before exploding as it crashed into the wall of the police department.


	9. Chapter 9 The RPD

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Nine: The RPD**

The aluminum rooftop of the crashed bus only managed to slow Leon's fall for an instant, and then he tore right through, landing hard on a row of seats immediately after entering the darkened interior. The good news was that this appeared to be one of the more expensive busses, meaning that the seats were both thick and soft enough to cushion his fall… the bad news, however, was that someone had forgotten to put one of the armrests all the way down.

Groaning in pain as he slid one hand behind his back to rub the sore part, the young man struggled to sit up while looking out the window. There was mostly car wreckage and buildings out the side he was on, so Leon turned back to look out the other side windows, just in time to see another deranged person grabbing for his feet. They must've been lying in the center isle or something, but now that there was a solid grip on his ankle, the drooling and snarling man was trying to bite him.

"Get off me!" He yelled, kicking the man in the mouth. "Get the fuck off me!"

Blood and a few teeth flew off of the deranged man's face from kick after kick, but like with the others the young man had seen, he was not being deterred by threats or pain. Even after losing several teeth, the groaning man was still coming at him, so Leon pressed his free foot so that it was against the deranged man's throat, forced his discolored head up a few inches… and shot him. There was a loud _bang_ as blood and brains were splattered across the seats on the other side, and the young man was able to sigh with relief when his attacker collapsed back down into the center aisle.

No time to rest though, he thought as he sat up all the way. Claire was headed toward the police station, and he needed to find her again before anything happened… again he could only think about how scared the poor girl must be… given how scared _he_ was, and if she got to the RPD and he wasn't there… would she think that he abandoned her? Would she panic and try to escape the city on her own? Every scenario he could think of was bad, so Leon got up, stepped over his now dead attacker, and walked up to the front of the bus where he pulled the door open.

"Oh, shit!" He yelled, immediately trying to pull it closed again.

There had been another small group of them standing right outside the door when he used the driver's lever to open it, and they immediately tried to force their way onto the bus; getting their arms in the way so that the door couldn't close, and Leon knew that there weren't enough bullets left in his pistol to fight them off, so he was forced to abandon the lever. Once the young man was away from the driver's seat, the deranged pursuers groaned almost excitedly as they stormed onto the bus, and Leon could only back down the center aisle.

He fired a single shot, hitting the nearest one in the forehead in an attempt to slow the others down when she collapsed, but the others just climbed or fell over her, and soon Leon was out of room. His back hit the end of the bus a few seconds later, but thankfully all of these newer busses came equipped with an emergency exit in the back. This probably wasn't the scenario that the inventor had in mind when designing it, but that didn't stop the young man from pressing on the release bar, and jumping out the back of the bus as soon as the emergency exit swung open.

There were a few more of the deranged people on this side of the bus as well, but they hadn't been so quick to notice him, giving Leon the chance to run right on past. One of the closer ones started to groan while turning to face him, but his discolored mouth was closed really fast when the young man struck him with the stock of his pistol while running by. The deranged man spun around and fell over, but Leon was no longer paying any attention to him, or to the others that were now starting to join in the chase.

What he _was_ paying attention to, however, was the object that was coming into view up ahead. It was a large iron gate, double-door style built into a stone archway, less than half a residential block away, and written into the top of the archway in big metal letters with a light shining on them… were the letters _R.P.D._ Sprinting as quickly as he could, the young man left his pursuers behind; running up the shallow incline that was _Ennerdale Street_ , and then ramming his shoulder into the iron gate.

There was a loud and slow _screech_ as the rusted hinges started to move, but the gate was a lot heavier than he'd imagined, giving his pursuers time to catch up. Thankfully, Leon only needed to get the gate open far enough for himself to get through, and then he squeezed his way into the courtyard beyond, before slamming the gate shut right in the discolored faces of his groaning pursuers. They reached through the gate in continued attempts to catch him, but their threat was ended… and a few of their arms were broken as well… when the young man dropped the locking bar into place.

"And stay out." Leon said, bending over to catch his breath. "Crazy bastards."

Any fool could see that, judging by both the condition of the city and the gathering hoard of the deranged, that it was too dangerous to go back outside… so the young man turned around to get a look at his new surroundings. He was in a small, but well maintained courtyard that had a concrete walkway surrounded by hedges that were long overdue for trimming. The walkway led up to the entrance of an… _unbelievably_ large building. It looked more like a major metropolitan library, or maybe one of those gigantic mansions on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and Leon might have thought this was the wrong place, if not for the large plaque above the teal-colored double doors, which read:

 _R.P.D._

 _RACCOON CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT_

Well, there was no point in staying outside, so the young man walked up to the front door, and pushed it open, thankful that it moved much easier than the gate had done. Pulling it shut behind him, and then lifting up on the locking bar just to be safe, Leon turned around to look at the main lobby, and was astonished at what he saw. Honestly, he wasn't sure what he expected, but it wasn't a massive room that was decorated more like a _museum_ than any police department he had ever been inside.

There was a huge fountain statue in the center of a woman holding up a water basin, and in front of that was an area rug with the design of Leon's police badge. Around the room there were several wooden side doors, and even a couple more on the walkway that wrapped around the lobby on the second floor… although from there he couldn't see a way of _getting_ to the second floor walkway. Beyond the statue there was a large round reception desk at the very back of the lobby, and the young man could see what looked like an active computer monitor, but what he didn't see… were people.

The whole place was empty; no one manning the front desk, no police officers getting ready to deal with the chaos that had gripped the city, and no civilians seeking refuge. The room was so quiet and still that the young man's footsteps echoed loudly with each step he took away from the door, stopped only when he reached the area rug. Taking another look around, he saw that no one was on the walkway above, either, but how could that be? Leon could understand smaller places like Emmy's Café where he found Claire, being abandoned, but this was the _police station_ … this was supposed to be a safe…

"Claire?!" He called, realizing that he hadn't seen any signs of her as well. "Claire Redfield, are you here?! Hello?! _Anyone_?! Is there _anyone_ here?! Hello?!"

His words echoed around the room, reverbing and overlapping against each other until his words could barely be understood, even by himself… and then they faded. Once again the lobby fell silent, and no one had answered his calls after several seconds… meaning that maybe there really _was_ no one there. Of course, this place was huge, so maybe they were just in other areas… or maybe they were spaced out around the city, trying to restore order. Yeah, that was probably it, he thought as he walked quickly over to the front desk. That _had_ to be it.

The computer was displaying a _lock-screen_ , and the young man didn't have a password, so he moved around the desk to where a couple of hand-radios had been left on charging stations. The meters read that the batteries on both were full, so Leon picked them both up, clipping one onto his belt, and switching the other one on. There was a short crackle as the radio powered up, and after hearing his own voice doing a standard test through the one on his belt, he could at least be sure that they worked.

"Any units on this station." He said into the receiver. "Repeat, any units on this station, this is Officer Leon Kennedy at the precinct, over."

Again, his own voice came through on the second radio, but other than that, there was no reply. This was fine, since there were multiple channels, and he didn't know which ones were currently in use, so Leon repeated his call, again and again, each time switching to a different channel, but the reply was always the same… nothing. Repeating the call a second _and_ a third time on each channel, the young man's breathing began to get shallow as he was forced to consider the possibility that he could be alone.

But how could he be _alone_ when Raccoon City had a police station _that size_? It just didn't make any sense… even if _some_ of the officers had been killed by the deranged people out there, they were well armed, organized, and highly trained police officers, each with a _hell_ of a lot more experience than _he_ had. Yes, those lunatics had nearly gotten him out there, but that was _only_ because he had been unprepared for what was happening, and grossly under-armed for it as well. There had to be _someone_ left, there just had…

Suddenly the young man's thoughts stopped when the knob on the nearest side door started to turn. Yes, he had been hoping that someone else was in the building, but until this exact second, Leon had failed to consider that this _someone else_ could have been just as deranged as the people outside. The knob rattled a bit, and then the door slowly swung open, causing the young man to hold his breath in nervous anticipation.

"H… hello?" A weak voice called as a man in a police uniform dragged himself into view on the floor. "Is… is someone there?"


	10. Chapter 10 A Sudden Scream

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Ten: A Sudden Scream**

The whole building shook when the helicopter crashed, but Claire managed to keep her footing… that is, until the resulting explosion knocked her off her feet. She hit the paved surface of the landing zone almost as quickly as the flames from the burning vehicle were spreading across the wall of the building, and when the young woman sat up again, she didn't know what she should do. The fire was spreading rapidly, and there were no hoses or fire extinguishers in sight, so… so was the entire RPD about to burn to the ground?

Thankfully, this was not the case. A few seconds later, there was a loud click, followed by what sounded like falling rain as the landing zone's automatic fire-suppression sprinklers came on. Of course, with as much water as these wall-mounted sprinklers were pumping out, it was more like a flash flood, and pretty soon the standing water was almost above the toes of Claire's shoes before even being able to run off over the side of the building. Well, at least the fires were going out, meaning that the building was out of danger… and speaking of getting out of danger, the young woman needed to get into the police station as quickly as possible.

Apparently, the RPD had been having its share of zombie problems, as shown by the ones who had been chasing that officer, but so far no more had appeared, meaning that right now was probably the best time to go in. Claire's feet made a _slosh-slosh-slosh_ through the water as she moved across the landing zone, and then she pulled open the door, only to gasp as even _more_ water spilled out, instantly soaking her shoes and socks during its initial surge.

"Damn it!" She found herself exclaiming, trying to step above the water as if it would do any good. "Aw, man… I _hate_ wet socks."

Turns out that the sprinklers outside had not been the only ones to come on after the crash, and the ones mounted on the ceiling of the hallway she was now entering were putting out just as much water as the ones outside. Needless to say, the young woman was completely soaked by the time she had taken three steps into the hall. Actually, this hall, Claire discovered as she moved along, was more like a covered outdoor walkway, being that one side was nothing but pillars and a waist-high guardrail to keep people from finding a real quick shortcut to the parking lot below.

There also didn't seem to be any more zombies in this area, probably since all of them had gone after that officer, so there was _one_ nice thing about the crash. As for the walkway, it curved around the building until another door was in sight, but running toward it wasn't such a good idea, since the rugs were soaked and slippery. In fact, Claire had almost dropped the shotgun over the side after slipping on a rug and falling against the guardrail. She managed to keep it, thankfully, and from then on was content to walk.

Beyond the walkway was an enclosed hall, meaning that she had finally made her way _inside_ the building, and the sprinklers in this area were not on. Of course, that didn't keep _her_ from still being soaked; dripping water all over the hard wood floor, and even more so when she tried to wring out her hair. This hallway continued straight on to what looked like an office door, but also took a right turn up ahead, but after stopping to listen for a second, Claire realized that the only person currently making any noise in the building… was herself.

It had been a few years since she had really explored the police station, mostly because she had started to dislike cops during her rebellious teenage years, but she still sort of knew her way around. If the young woman remembered correctly, the door in front of her went into the office of the Police Chief's receptionist, and from there it wasn't far to the S.T.A.R.S. Office, which was the most likely place to find…

Suddenly a high-pitch scream cut through the silence like a knife, startling Claire so badly that she almost slipped in one of her own wet footprints. Turning to the right, and realizing that the scream had come from a woman, she found herself almost reflexively heading toward where it came from. The silence had resumed immediately after the scream, with the only remaining sound being that of the young woman's shoes thumping down the hall… only to turn a corner, and let out her own shriek upon running right into a zombie's waiting arms.

Claire tried to raise the shotgun as she came to a stop, but the female zombie was too close, and her wet shoes were not able to stop as good as the young woman hoped, instead making her feet slide right out from underneath her. The zombie, who wore the uniform of a police officer, had grabbed her at the same time that she slipped, causing both of them to fall onto the floor… Claire landing on her back… and the zombie landing right on top of her.

"Get off me!" She screamed, wedging the shotgun underneath its chin to hold it back. "Get the _fuck_ off me! Chris! Leon! Anyone, help!"

No one came running to the rescue as the struggle continued, and the zombie was doing everything in its power to try and bite her. Drool ran from its mouth down onto her cheek and neck, making Claire want to vomit, and it was difficult to keep the monster's snapping jaws from reaching her, since the zombie's arms were smacking at her to get the shotgun out of the way. Try as she might, the young woman just couldn't manage to free herself, nor could she push the zombie far enough away to use the shotgun.

The zombie continued to snarl and groan, reaching and biting at her while trying to crawl up closer to her head, making it even harder for the young woman to push it back… and that's when she felt something hit her leg. Taking a quick glance down toward her waist, Claire saw that the zombie was still wearing her gun belt, and that more importantly… her pistol was still holstered. It was a pretty big risk to let go of the shotgun with one hand, allowing the zombie to get its teeth mere inches from her face, but after reaching down to the gun belt, Claire was able to get a hold of the pistol.

 _Bang!_ Pulling the weapon upward, and shoving the barrel into the zombie's groaning mouth, the young woman pulled the trigger, causing a flash of light as the back of its head exploded outward. The zombie went limp, collapsing on top of her, but finally allowing Claire to kick and crawl her way out from underneath it, and then continuing to scoot away until her back was against the wall. For several seconds she just sat there, keeping the drool-covered pistol aimed at the fallen zombie, and eventually she was able to convince herself that it was really dead.

 _Oh, shit, the screaming woman!_ Claire suddenly remembered why she had been headed that way in the first place, causing her to pick up her fallen shotgun, and then scramble to her feet. The young woman tucked her pistol into the back of her shorts so that she could properly hold the shotgun, and then continued down the hallway, opening the first door that she came to, on her right. Inside was a darkened storage room of some kind, with a skylight that took up most of the ceiling, and several medium size crates that looked like they were holding… art portraits?

Either way, there was no sign of a screaming woman in this room, so she backed out into the hallway, and saw that the only other door around was the one that went into the Chief of Police's office. There had still been no other sounds since that scream rang out, making the young woman worry that she might be too late, especially since it had taken her so long to deal with that single zombie. Claire was also not too eager to run right into any others that might be skulking around the tight corridors, so she was much more quiet and careful while turning the knob on the door.

The long fluorescent light that hung in the center of the next, much shorter hallway allowed the young woman to see that there were no more zombies, at least for now. So she continued on past the plaques on the wall for the various _Officer of the Month_ awards, not surprised at all that her brother's name didn't appear on any of them, but almost tripped over a chair while reading them. Looking down, Claire saw that there were four chairs lined up in a row next to the upcoming door, most likely for those waiting to be called into the Chief's office… but most importantly, she knew that she needed to pay more attention to her surroundings, especially in _this_ environment.

But why, she wondered while moving closer to the door, would a woman's scream come from this office? Especially since there had been no follow up sounds, as gruesome as that sounded… sounds like when that guy back at the café had been eating Emmy… groans, and ripping flesh… no, Claire needed to stop focusing on what happened in the café, since all it did was make her freeze up and feel sick to her stomach.

As bad as it was to think, Emmy and the Kendo brother's problems were over, while she… while she was starting to realize that the police station might not be any safer than it had been out on the streets. And what had become of Leon? Had he already made it to the RPD? Or had he met the same fate as the Kendo brothers? Aside from his questionable driving skills, and obvious unfamiliarity with Raccoon City, the cop had seemed pretty capable of taking care of himself… she just hoped that he was okay.

This was the same hope that Claire had for whoever had made that scream, but after putting her ear up against the door which read: _Brian Irons, Raccoon City Chief of Police_ , there were still no other sounds to be heard. Slowly putting her hand on the knob, and turning it even slower, there was a soft _click_ as the latch opened, allowing warm orange light to enter the hallway as the door was opened. The source of this light turned out to be a large, flickering fire going in the fireplace, causing the large office to be covered with dancing shadows.

There were display cases around the room, filled with awards, plaques, and trophies, while the office floor was covered with a soft, heavy carpet. There were also what looked like hunting trophies; animals that had been stuffed and mounted by a skilled taxidermist, spaced out around the room, giving the place a look that was more of a hunting lodge than the office of the Chief of Police. At the very end of the room, in front of the fireplace, was an oversized desk with the RPD logo carved into the front, and on top of the desk…

"Oh… my… God." Claire whispered as she walked across the room. "Oh, no."

There was someone lying on top of the desk… a young woman with blonde hair, and not much older than she was. She was wearing a white sundress and heels… but a large portion of her sundress had become stained with what looked like blood… blood that came from a wound to her…

Suddenly there was movement, stopping the young woman's thoughts as the large chair behind the desk spun around, revealing that an overweight man had been sitting there, quietly facing the fire this whole time. He had a mustache, wore a police badge on his fancy vest… and was holding a very large pistol, which was now aimed at the young woman's overweight man with a mustache… and a _very_ large pistol in his hand that was now aimed at Claire's chest.


	11. Chapter 11 Marvin Branagh

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Eleven: Marvin Branagh**

Rushing over to the crawling man's aid, Leon saw that not only was he normal looking, but also wearing an RPD uniform. He did, however, appear to have some kind of wound on his abdomen, shown both by the blood on his shirt, as well as the way he groaned in pain whenever he tried to move, but now that the young man was there, he was sure that he would be able to help. So he grabbed hold of the officer, tried to be as gentle as possible in helping him to his feet, and then together the two of them got him over to a chair in the room he had just crawled out of.

"Thanks." The officer said, groaning as he was helped to sit down. "Who are you? Are there others with you?"

"I'm Leon Kennedy… _Officer_ Leon Kennedy." The young man replied. "I'm one of the replacements, but uh… looks like I came a little too late. What the hell happened in this city?"

Beginning with a short introduction, while asking Leon to retrieve the first-aid kit in the nearby filing cabinet, the officer identified himself as Sergeant Marvin Branagh, head of the RPD's _Burglary Division_ , motioning for him to look at the large open room that they were in. Branagh admitted that his Division wasn't much to look at these days, given that the rows of desks and tables were either overturned or partially covered with scattered papers, or other knocked over items.

Retrieving the first-aid kit, and bringing it back over to him, Leon opened it up, and helped the officer get his shirt off before bandaging his wound. It looked like he had been bitten, probably by one of those deranged freaks, but at least with the bandage he wouldn't bleed any more. Looking around at the room again, the young man realized that it looked like there had been some kind of riot; broken glass, blood-stained floor tiles… honestly, with the shape it was in, Leon was surprised that the lights and ceiling fans still worked.

"A couple months ago the STARS team went on a mission." Branagh continued, his speech strained as he tried to lean back. "A lot of them didn't come back… but the ones that did, Chris and the others, I mean… they talked about zombies in a mansion in the mountains… claimed it was all Umbrella's fault… but no one believed them. Chris left town, said he… was going to Europe… haven't heard from the others, and then all this happened… _zombies_ in Raccoon City… who would have thought?"

"Zombies?" The young man asked, almost in disbelief. "You mean like in the movies? Wait a second, you mentioned a Chris, right? Chris _Redfield_? I was with his sister Claire, but we got separated… you haven't seen her here, have you?"

The officer seemed to get visibly upset by the words Leon was saying, and it seemed like he was attempting to say something, but the words devolved into a fit of coughing and choking. The young man tried to help him sit up, patting him on the back for a second, before spotting some bottles of water on a nearby desk. There were a few bottles of soda as well, along with a large _dunce cap_ that had the words _STEWPID ROOKEE_ written across it in black marker, and even some noise makers as if some kind of party had been planned… but never happened. Taking one of the bottles of water, the young man saw that there was a card underneath it… a card with his name.

Now with the water and the card in his hand, Leon went back over to Branagh, who was incredibly grateful for the bottle of water. The officer twisted off the cap and started drinking, coughing a couple times before resuming, and giving the young man time to open the envelope, and take out the card. The words _HAPPY BIRTHDAY_ had been crossed out, replaced with a hand-written _WELCOME HOME, ROOKIE BEATCH_ in permanent marker. Branagh was still working on the water, so Leon opened the card, and the inside read:

 _Congratulations on your assignment to the RPD, where life is hell for any Rookie. We'll take good care of you as long as you do what you're told, like to chug down a .40 then climb a light pole._

 _Your first eighteen months here will be torment and pain, as you fight and struggle to make yourself a name. However, keep your chin up, you've been trained what to do, and we'll kill anyone on the outside who messes with you._

 _So welcome home, Rookie, you're here to stay, and the crime in this city isn't going away. But for now enjoy the party, we'll all show you how. Welcome to the RPD, you're one of us now._

 _-All of us at the Raccoon City Police Department._

"Too bad about the party." Branagh groaned as Leon put the card down. "I'm sure it would've been a blast… but please tell me I heard you wrong a minute ago… did you say that little Claire Redfield is back in town? She was supposed to be away… at college."

"I'm sorry, but she's here… _somewhere_." Leon replied, taking the empty bottle when he was done with it. "She came here looking for her brother, but you say he went to _Europe_? How could he just leave the country without telling his sister?"

The officer started to reply, but then he started coughing again, but more hoarsely this time as if he were getting worse. The young man went to grab him another bottle of water, but in response Branagh smacked it out of his hand, as if what he were trying to say was more important than drinking. In fact, he _looked_ a bit worse now, too; sweat beading up on his forehead, and acting like it was hard to keep his eyes open.

"There were others… others in the station." The officer struggled to say. "Might still be… save them… Leon… Leon, I don't think I'm gonna make it. Listen to me… if I die, you gotta… gotta shoot me… in the…

"Don't talk like that." The young man interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're gonna be just fine, we just have to…

Suddenly Leon's words were cut off by a loud, guttural moan from the officer, and then the young man's eyes widened as Branagh's face began to change. First his eyes developed a heavy white glaze, and then his skin became a discolored shade of purplish-yellow, all of this happening in a matter of seconds until the officer lunged at him. With arms outstretched, the snarling and deranged Branagh drove the young man backwards, tackling him onto the nearest desk.

Leon screamed in fear while trying to push the… the _zombie_ back, but he couldn't reach his pistol, and the only thing within reach was one of the bottles of soda for his cancelled party. Well, it was better than nothing, so the young man reached for the bottle, grabbed it by the neck, and swung it hard at Branagh's head. It struck the zombie in the mouth, causing a small spray of blood when its own bitten off tongue fell out a second later, but other than that the bottle wasn't helping much.

The young man was trying to find something else to hit Branagh with, when a cracking sound reached his ears, followed by the desk collapsing out from under them. It fell kind of sideways, making the zombie fall away from him when they hit the floor, and giving Leon the time he needed to grab his pistol. _Bang!_ There was a flash of light as the bullet slammed into the top of Branagh's head when he was starting to get up, and then the zombie collapsed, allowing silence to fall over the large room… aside from the random _creak_ from the slowly turning ceiling fans.

"What the fuck!?" The young man found himself yelling, still pointing the gun at Branagh. "What… why did… how did… fuck!"

 _Zombies_! There was no other word that could be used to describe the deranged people that were wandering the streets of Raccoon City, but… how was that even _possible_? He vaguely recalled the words of Branagh, telling him about the STARS team finding zombies in a mansion somewhere in the Arklay Mountains, and that somehow it was all _Umbrella's_ fault. So… had he been referring to the Umbrella _Corporation_? The same corporation that supposedly provided jobs for half the city? Why would they create zombies? And more importantly… how would they have done so in the first place?"

Well, this explains what happened to the rest of the cops… and if they had all met Branagh's fate, then that meant they could still be, uh… still wandering around. Leon might have been able to take down Branagh, but if there were more of these things around, and there really were still others in the station that needed his help… then he was going to need more bullets, for one thing. The now dead zombie was still wearing his gun belt, and as much as the young man hated to disrespect the dead in such a way… he needed it more than Branagh did.

Trying not to think about what he was doing as he rolled the zombie over, Leon removed the belt as much as possible, then put it around his own waist, and adjusted it for the size difference. Both of them carried the same pistol, so the young man just took the clip out in order to reload his own weapon, and at least now he had a good supply of ammunition… as well as some handcuffs and pepper-spray that he doubted he would be needing.

Hey, maybe there was something else in this room that he could use as well, being that it was the headquarters of Burglary Division and all, so Leon did a quick search of the room, including the enclosed office in the back, but finding a whole lot of nothing. Well, there _were_ things there, just nothing that the young man believed that he could use. The good news was that now he both had a slightly better understanding about the situation, and more bullets, but the bad news was that Claire had yet to be found.

If that girl had somehow made it to the station all by herself, then she was in a lot of trouble, and as possibly the last cop in the RPD, it was his duty to protect her… and besides, he was the only one who knew where her brother had gone. So checking his pistol again, the young man started toward the only other door in the room, glad to find it unlocked when he turned the knob… and then slowly pulling it open.


	12. Chapter 12 Brian Irons

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twelve: Brian Irons**

The sight of the dead blonde girl lying across the desk, combined with the fact that the man, whom she immediately recognized as RPD Chief Brian Irons, was aiming his pistol at her, was enough to make Claire freeze in place. It was funny how a few years before, the police department had been a place where the young woman would always feel safe, but… leave town for a year… a _single_ year, and look what happens.

There was an angry, almost wild look in Irons' eyes as he kept the weapon aimed at her for several seconds, momentarily looking more like a wax sculpture than a person with how still he was… until his eyes moved. With eyebrows narrowed as if concentrating, the Chief's eyes scanned over every inch of Claire's body, before seeming to finally relax a little… of course, how anyone could relax while there was a dead girl in front of them, was beyond her.

"How nice… not a zombie." Irons commented calmly. "Not many _people_ left in the city these days, you know; maybe a few cops, a handful of people hiding in their homes… at least until the zombies get them when they have to come out for food, and _looters_. Well, you're not a cop… and you don't look like a starving coward… so you must be a looter. Put that shotgun on the table nice and slow for me, and then just as slowly put up your hands."

The man was _clearly_ not in the best state of mind, and who _would_ be in a situation like this? His short hair was unkempt, and he looked like he hadn't slept in a while. Still, if he really thought that she was some kind of a looter, there was nothing to say that he wouldn't shoot her, so deciding to play it smart for now, Claire slowly set her shotgun down on the table next to her, before putting up her hands.

"Good girl… very obedient." The Chief continued. "Hands on your head now, interlock your fingers, and then do a little spin for me… _slowly_."

"Please, Chief, I'm not a looter, or anything." Claire replied nervously. "I just got back into town… don't you remember me? I'm Claire…

Suddenly her words were interrupted when Irons aimed his pistol downward, and pulled the trigger, making the young woman gasp and jump as a hole was put in the floor right next to her foot. Now aiming back at her chest, the Chief quickly growled that he _didn't care who she was_ , and that she was going to _end up just like all the others before too long_. He then repeated the commands to interlock her fingers and spin, prompting Claire to do just that.

"Stop there… _Made in Heaven_ , huh?" He said, reading the back of her vest once she was facing away. "I imagine it's hard to hide weapons with a figure like yours… slowly use your right hand to remove the pistol in your belt, and then set it next to the shotgun."

Not wanting to risk him shooting any closer to her than he had already done, the young woman disarmed herself completely by setting the pistol on the table, and then continuing to spin around until she was facing Irons again. Mixed in with the tired, wild look in his eyes, there was now the very beginnings of what looked like smugness on his face… a fact that made Claire feel even more nervous as he motioned with his weapon for her to take a few side-steps away from the table where her guns were sitting.

"So nice to meet a girl who does as she's told." Irons said, nodding his head toward the dead girl. "Unlike Beverly, here… she's the Mayor's daughter, you know… or _was_ … and I was supposed to look after the little brat while her _spineless_ father was taken to safety. Can you imagine that? Running away like _battered wife_ while your child is left in danger?"

Claire didn't care for some of the metaphors that the Chief was using, but this wasn't exactly her college campus where she could argue against comments that degraded women. Apparently, though as Irons kept talking, it became obvious that Beverly wasn't a very good listener; got herself bitten by one of those zombies while doing something stupid, although the details were vague.

"Such a beauty." The Chief continued, placing his hand on the dead girl's cheek almost lovingly. "The kind of girl that _every man_ wants to get his hands on… I'm sure you can relate… but soon her flawless skin will putrefy, and she'll come back as one of _them_ within the hour. The timing is different for everyone… some take mere seconds… others more than a half hour… no one knows why."

"Isn't there some way to stop it?" Claire asked, almost scared to talk.

Irons chuckled to himself for a moment, leaning back in his chair while assuring the young woman that there were _two_ definite ways to stop the transformation. Clearing his throat as he leaned forward again, it almost sounded like there was excitement in his voice when he pressed the barrel of his pistol against Beverly's head while explaining that the first way to stop them was to put a bullet in their brain.

He then started dragging the weapon almost inappropriately across her body, stopping at each joint in order to emphasize that the second way to stop the transformation was to dismember them completely. Irons' next comment was about how the first method was a whole lot easier, and this continued explanation came with his sudden movement into pointing his pistol back at the side of her head.

 _Bang!_ There was a flash of light as a large hole was put through both the dead girl's head, and Chief Irons' desk, and then Beverly collapsed just like the zombie out in the hall had done. Claire had been caught so off-guard by this, that she had let out the start of a scream before putting her hands over her nose and mouth. Sighing with what sounded like disappointment, Irons patted the dead girl on the head… and then he returned his attention to the young woman.

"See what happens to bad girls who don't listen?" He asked, aiming the still smoking pistol at her again. "Now, I don't think you're stupid enough to try and hide any more weapons from me… but then again, I thought she was smarter than that, too… so go ahead and open your vest for me… just to be safe."

Part of Claire wanted to tell him where he could get off, and then run out of the room as fast as she could, with or without her weapons… but, seeing how easily the Chief had disposed of Beverly, she doubted that she would be able to get away. So as uncomfortable as it made her, the young woman unzipped her vest, grateful that she had decided to wear an undershirt while holding it open for him to see that she wasn't carrying anything else.

" _Made in Heaven_." He commented again, this time smirking a little as he stared at her. "Apparently so… now get out of my office; I'd like to be alone for a while… and leave those guns right where they are."

"Leave them?" Claire asked, being careful not to make any sudden moves. "But what if there's more of those zombies out there? You can't just make me go unarmed and…

The young woman stopped talking when Chief Irons suddenly spun back around in his chair so that he was facing the fireplace, pretty much non-verbally telling her that whatever she had to say didn't matter. Of course, now that he was facing away, maybe she could grab them without him realizing… or get shot in the process… since it was clear that the overweight man had no problem shooting a woman.

Either way was a risk… maybe getting shot in this office, or maybe getting attacked in the RPD by zombies… so Claire let go of her vest, allowing it to fall closed as she stepped toward her guns as quietly as she could. Maybe the crackling fire was masking her movements, or maybe the Chief had just lost interest, but the young woman managed to pick up the pistol without making any noise, constantly looking at the back of his chair for signs of movement.

Tucking the pistol behind her back, Claire was relieved to have at least reclaimed one of her weapons, but now she had to get the shotgun, which was larger and more likely to make noise. However, the young woman was confident that she could get it silently as long as she was careful, so she grabbed onto the stock… only to cause a loud _clunk_ as it moved on the table. Suddenly panic set in, causing her to not even look at the Chief's chair, instead just grabbing the shotgun, and trying not to scream while sprinting toward the door.

With each step, Claire expected to hear a gunshot, followed by a sensation of pain, but it never came as she ran back through the half-open office door. Back down the narrow waiting-hall, and into the area where she had fought the female cop-zombie, the young woman slammed the door shut, before running across the corridor, and ducking into the small art-storage room that she had seen earlier.

Closing the door much more quietly, and locking it from the inside, she leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath. Now that there wasn't a gun pointed at her, Claire's mind started to process everything that had happened with Chief Irons, prompting her to zip up her vest, before wiping the start of tears from her eyes. Never in her life had the young woman felt so helpless and violated as when Irons had been disarming her… especially when he made her pretty much _give him a free show_ … something Chris would have probably killed him for.

"Fucking pervert." She whispered angrily to herself, wiping the last tears. "Stupid fat fucking pervert… probably killed that girl himself… I hope Chris goes in there and…

Chris, that's right, she remembered while starting to calm down. She needed to get over to the STARS office since it was the most likely place to find her brother… and even if he wasn't there, there was bound to be someone or _something_ around that could point her in the right direction. However, it was on the other side of the precinct, meaning that Claire would have to venture back out into the corridor.

Not wanting to open the door and find herself looking down the barrel of the Chief's gun, the young woman first put her ear up to the door, but didn't hear anything for several seconds. This was probably the best chance that she would ever get to start moving, so Claire opened the door enough to peek out, sighed with relief when she didn't see anyone there, and finally moved back into the corridor.


	13. Chapter 13 The STARS Office

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirteen: The STARS Office**

After leaving the offices of Burglary Division behind, Leon passed through a small evidence room that was filled with files and lockers. There were only a few that could be opened, since he didn't have a key, nor did he have enough extra bullets to start shooting off locks, so relatively little was gained from this place. There was another door on the far side of the room, so he passed through it, only to find himself at the start of yet another corridor.

This place was _massive_ , the young man thought to himself as he started walking. There was no way that this building had always been a police station; it looked more like one of those really big museums in Washington D.C., and if he wasn't careful about paying attention to where he was going, it would probably be pretty easy for him to get lost in such a place. The good news, however, was that there didn't seem to be any zombies around for the moment.

After everything that had happened with running through the city, and then the tragic fate of Sergeant Branagh, it was nice for him to get a little bit of a break from constantly fighting for his life, and this lack of creatures trying to kill him allowed for a pretty thorough inspection of the immediate area. There were a few windows on the wall of the first stretch of hallway, but when he looked outside, all the young man was able to see was darkness. There were a few moving shadows, but nothing that he could distinguish for certain… probably nothing but more zombies anyway.

Continuing down the hallway, Leon was careful as he approached the corner, in case there were more zombies waiting for him, and thankfully there were not. There was, however, a smaller door that was almost tucked away… and a staircase that went up to the second level. Figuring that he should check every room that he came across, in case the others people that Branagh had mentioned were hiding inside, the young man decided to investigate the smaller door before heading upstairs.

It was unlocked, and when he walked inside, he noticed that the lights were dimmer than in the rest of the building. This was a small room, well supplied with chemical solutions, and high quality paper, all centered around a large basin in the middle. The only other feature of the room was a switch on the wall, that when pressed, turned off the regular lights, replacing them with even dimmer red ones.

"Must be the photo lab." He said to himself, looking around after turning the lights back on.

There were a few photos that had been developed, although most of them had been badly over-exposed to light, or appeared to have been abandoned halfway through the process. The only intact photo was one of an attractive young woman with short hair. She was sitting outside with a basketball, and wearing a green sports bra that had the letters R.P.D. written across the front… but as pretty as she was, this did not help Leon in the slightest.

The young man wasn't sure what he had been hoping to find while searching the photo lab, but whatever it was, he left the room feeling disappointed, and now there was nowhere to go but upstairs. The staircase itself was hard wood, and covered with a thick red carpet that partially muffled the sound of his footsteps as he ascended, but there was no more time to admire the architecture or design of this building, since the first thing Leon saw upon reaching the top of the stairs was another zombie walking toward him.

The creature was a good distance away, reaching out its arms and groaning as soon as it noticed him, but this time the young man had plenty of time to react. _Bang!_ Aiming his pistol and pulling the trigger, there was a small spray of blood coming from the back of the zombie's head just before it collapsed to the floor, and the same thing happened with the next zombie that came around the corner a few seconds later. Apparently shooting them in the head, as Sergeant Branagh had suggested, really was the best way to get rid of them.

"Zombies." The young man said to himself, still in disbelief. "How the fuck does this even _happen_?"

No matter how much of this kind of thing he had seen since arriving in Raccoon City, it was still hard for Leon to believe that he was actually fighting zombies… like, real life zombies. Of course, this whole fucked up scenario that he was in was more like a bad horror film than anything; lone cop in an empty station, fighting off zombies while trying to find the girl… well, if it ever became a movie, he certainly wouldn't go see it.

Snickering for a moment after considering some of the possibilities of actors that could portray him, the young man had a really funny visual of _Nicholas Cage_ in a police uniform, busting in to save _Sandra Bullock_ from getting eaten alive at Emmy's Café… but then this brief moment of levity faded away when he stepped around the bleeding, twitching zombies… and realizing that there was _nothing_ funny about what was happening in Raccoon City.

Passing some rather elaborate statues that were set as corner decorations, and even more expensive looking artwork on the walls that didn't seem to belong inside of a police station, the young man shook his head to regain his focus, realizing that his small break from the action was over. This time he put his ear up against the door at the end of the hall before trying the latch, Leon couldn't hear anything beyond it, but he still kept his pistol ready, crouching down and to the side before quietly pushing it open.

There was a long, slow, creak as the door opened, and the young man couldn't help but marvel at the contrasting décor of this place. The last hallway that he had been in was elaborately decorated with art, statues, and carpet… while this latest one looked almost abandoned, with its bare wood floor, almost antiquated light fixtures on the wall, and a knocked over janitor's cart serving as the only decoration. However, all of this was forgotten when Leon actually stepped into the hallway, and saw a sign mounted on the wall next to the very first door that he came to:

 _S.T.A.R.S._

 _Special Tactics and Rescue Service_

After seeing the state of the rest of the RPD, the young man highly doubted that there were any STARS personnel inside the office, but it was still good that he found it, since this was the unit that Claire had mentioned that her brother was assigned. He didn't want to be the one to tell the girl that Chris had skipped town without telling her, but even if he was forced to be the bearer of bad news, it would make him feel a million times better to know that she was all right.

"Claire?" Leon asked, turning the latch and opening the door. "Claire, are you here?"

Having hoped to find the girl either sitting at one of the desks waiting for him, or maybe even hiding underneath one, the young man was saddened when it turned out that Claire Redfield wasn't there at all. It was only an empty office that greeted him; several large desks spaced around the elongated room, a few metal cabinets… and a very large communications device that Leon quickly walked over to.

It appeared to be a standard dispatch radio set, and thankfully he had been trained to operate such a device back at the Academy, so he sat down in the chair in front of it, set the transmitter to broadcast over all frequencies, and turned on the receiver. Half expecting to receive radio traffic from police officers on the other side of the city, the young man was frustrated to find only static on every channel as if… as if there was a problem with the broadcast antenna on the roof.

Now, Leon didn't know how to get on the roof, nor was he trained in antenna repair, so after punching the desk in frustration, he turned off the radio. Okay, he was back to believing that he was the only cop left in the RPD, which became just a little more taxing on his mind each time he had to remember it, but even if he was alone, this was the _STARS Office_ … meaning that there were probably at least a few things around that could at least help him to survive.

Rummaging through the desks one at a time, and finding that most of them had already been emptied out, it wasn't long before he came across the desk that belonged to Claire's brother, identified by the nameplate that read: Christopher Redfield. There was a framed photo of someone who had to be Chris standing with Claire… of course the girl was a few years younger in the photo, wearing a skirt along with a sleeveless sweatshirt that had a neckline so big that it came down on one of her shoulders.

"Hard to imagine this city as being normal." Leon said, putting the photo back down. "Can't believe Claire grew up here."

Continuing along the rows of desks and briefly looking at the nameplates; Jillian Valentine, Rebecca Chambers, Bernard Burton, Albert Wesker… someone had clearly torn this office apart, looking for… everything that wasn't nailed down, apparently. Wesker's desk was the worst one, with the drawers having been pulled out of the desk, emptied on top of it, and then tossed onto the floor. This left papers and personal items scattered all over the place, and leaving Leon feeling like the last guy to try going to the supermarket right before a hurricane.

"Please be something in the cabinets." He prayed aloud, walking back across the room. "Please, oh _please_ be something in them."

One would think that the office of a police special force would have things like rifles, or grenade launchers, or something, but when the young man opened the metal cabinet, he found none of these things. There was a small box that had a few more bullets for his pistol… probably missed by whoever looted this place… oh, and there was a good size box of shells for a shotgun… but there was no shotgun.

With as frustrated as he was at this point, Leon was about to knock the cabinet over just to vent his rage, but suddenly he heard what sounded like footsteps coming from behind the open cabinet door. That's when the young man realized that like an idiot, he had left the office door open, meaning that any number of zombies could have been following him… so quickly slamming the cabinet door shut, and drawing his pistol before he could be attacked, Leon stopped when he saw, instead of a zombie, something that made him unable to keep from smiling.

"Claire!" He exclaimed.


	14. Chapter 14 Reunion

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Fourteen: Reunion**

The last time that Claire had passed through this waiting room, there had been several people waiting to see the Chief, along with the secretary behind the only large desk. Of course, she had only been about fourteen at the time, and now the room was empty. A few of the chairs against the wall, where the waiting people would be sitting, had been knocked over, and there were some bullet holes in the yellowish wallpaper, including one appeared to have broken one of the room's two light fixtures, leaving the place heavily shadowed.

There was a cup of what looked like really old coffee sitting next to an open but full packet of creamer, as if the room had been abandoned in a hurry, and for a moment the young woman considered trying to turn on the desk's computer, but decided against it since she wanted to be as far away from Chief Irons as possible. This was also the fastest way to the STARS Office, at least from where she was standing, and hopefully there would be someone around who could tell her where her brother was.

" _Unzip your vest for me_." She quietly mocked while crossing the room. " _Made in Heaven is right_ … stupid, fat pervert. That's probably the _only_ way he's _ever_ been able to get a look at a girl's boobs."

She was still really upset about what happened with Irons, and _oh boy_ , would Chris hear all about it when she found him, but for now the young woman had to focus on simply getting to the STARS Office, since there were probably more of those zombie things around somewhere. Thankfully there didn't seem to be any beyond the next door, which led to a walkway that hugged the wall above the police station's main lobby, and it was from being inside this room that made Claire truly realize just how empty the precinct was.

"Hello?" She called, hearing her own voice bounce around the walls. "Hello… is anyone here?"

Her feet made an echoing _clang-clang-clang_ as she followed the concrete walkway around so that she was standing above the reception desk, but the odd thing about the walkway was that there was no way to get down to the first floor from there. There _were_ ways to get down, two of them, in fact… either by going past the STARS Office to the main staircase, or by heading back through the Chief's office suite to the maintenance stairs that led down into the headquarters of _Homicide Division_.

There was also a staircase in the precinct's library that could be used to access the third floor, but there was nothing upstairs but a storage room for working on the giant clock that was on the front exterior wall of the RPD, which didn't help her in the slightest. The only other door, which was on the complete other side of the room, led into the library, but when Claire entered the large room, it was in the same condition as the lobby had been, minus the echo.

The heavy carpet muffled the sound of her footsteps as she passed by the multiple shelves of books, each volume left over from the brief period between when the police station had been a museum, and now when it was, well… a police station. Not that Claire had ever read any of the contents, even when her brother had forced her to sit alone in this room and do her homework while she had still been in High School… yeah, like she had ever done her homework, either.

Remembering little details about this place was starting to make her feel more at ease, but at the same time, the young woman now wanted to find her brother even more, so she quickly made her way to a door off to the left side of the library. Stopping after kicking the door open, Claire aimed her shotgun in all directions before continuing, in case there were more zombies waiting around the corner, and then moved on. After all, there was only a short distance between there and the STARS Office… but then she spotted the vending machines.

A sudden rumble from within her stomach, reminded the young woman of how hungry she had been before entering the city, causing her to stop in her tracks. There was nothing inside the glass of the first machine but unhealthy junk like candy bars and potato chips, but since Claire had been unable to get anything from Emmy's Café, she decided that her diet could be put on hold for a while. So she started searching through her pockets for some change, but didn't seem to have any… and the police station was abandoned… so she turned the shotgun around and slammed the stock into the glass.

With a loud _crash_ , the vending machine's glass plate shattered, raining shards all over the floor, but more importantly, allowing Claire Redfield access to the _Snickers_ bars. Tearing open the wrapper, and shoving it into her mouth like a mad woman, she closed her eyes and moaned with satisfaction as that first bite traveled down into her stomach. Once she had torn through this, as well as a bag of _Nacho Cheese Doritos_ , the young woman realized that she was thirsty as well, and it just so happened that the machine next to this one was filled with soda.

Again there was a loud _crash_ as pieces of glass rained down onto the floor, and Claire's hands were almost shaking when she grabbed a bottle of _Dr. Pepper_ ; twisting off the cap, and not stopping until the bottle was completely empty. Now no longer hungry or thirsty, the young woman sighed with relief while absent-mindedly tossing the bottle into a nearby trashcan, but then she let out an incredibly loud _belch_ that any frat boy would be proud of.

Now that the business of satisfying her stomach had been settled, Claire continued moving down the hallway, rounding the corner a short time later, and feeling even better when she spotted the sign on the wall next to the STARS Office. Noticing that the door was open when she approached, the young woman was careful to not make any noise upon entering the office, especially when she realized that someone was rummaging through the nearby weapons locker… someone who quickly slammed the door shut and aiming their pistol at her head before…

"Claire?" Leon asked, lowering his weapon just as quickly. "Oh thank God, I was getting really worried about…

Suddenly overcome by her own emotions, both incredibly happy to see him and equally upset about everything that had been happening, Claire interrupted the young man's words by rushing forward and throwing her arms around his neck, damn near leaping into his arms, regardless of how embarrassed she might feel about that later. Right now, all that mattered was that she was with someone who was not going to try to eat her, nor make her strip for him, and when Leon's arms went around her as well a moment later, the young woman felt completely safe for the first time since taking the Raccoon City Exit off the highway.

However, once the exceptionally long hung was over… after a minute or two… Leon was able to start bringing her up to speed, as far as everything that he had learned from the time that they had been forced to separate, as well as giving her one of his reclaimed police radios in case they got separated again for any reason. Beginning with the same limited amount of understanding as to the zombies that she had gained from the Kendo brothers, Claire was surprised to find out that her brother claimed the Umbrella Corporation was responsible for everything.

The young woman had known Marvin Branagh for a long time, and he was not known to be a liar of any sort… and it was also deeply shocking to find out how he had died. The Sergeant and her brother had been friends, but it still surprised Claire to find out that Chris had shared his decision to go to Europe with him… but not with her? This didn't make any sense; why would he just take off without giving her a heads-up of any kind? What if she, _oh who knows_ , decided to come back to Raccoon City to see him?

"That fucking jerk!" She exclaimed, kicking an empty trash can partway across the room. "That stupid fucking jerk! _Going after Umbrella in Europe_ , yeah right… he probably ran off to the Bahamas with _Jill Valentine_ … I can't _stand_ that woman."

Being the decent guy that he was, Leon made an obvious attempt to change the subject by reminding the young woman that her brother had at least not gotten caught up in all this zombie craziness, so that was good news, even if he _had_ run off with Jill. The young man continued to try and calm her down by urging her over to one of the chairs, and as much as Claire hated to be treated like a hot-tempered child, it was nice to _finally_ be able to sit down. He also brought over the box of shells for her weapon, before taking a seat himself, and this reminded the young woman to tell him about the vending machines, since he was probably hungry as well.

"It was lucky that, uh, _someone_ broke the glass." She explained, trying not to look guilty. "I ate the last _Snickers_ bar, but there were a lot of _Butterfinger_ ones left… and there's plenty of _Dr. Pepper_ left in the soda machine… unless you like _Diet Coke_ for some reason… lots of that too. Wow, we're pathetic… it's a good thing we're not on a date."

"I know, right?" Leon asked, leaning back in his chair. "Zombies, an abandoned building, stale candy bars, _and_ diet soda? Worst… first… date… _ever_."

They both had a good laugh at this, to the point where the young man almost fell out of his chair, which just made them laugh even harder… that is, until a different sound rang out above them, stopping the laughter. There was no mistaking that it had been a scream, but it was really high-pitch, as if it had belonged to a child. Quickly glancing at each other, and then jumping up, the two of them ran out of the STARS Office just in time to see just what they had suspected: There was a little girl with short blonde hair standing in the hallway… no, not standing… backing away as one of the police zombies shambled toward her.

"Get away from her!" Claire yelled, raising the shotgun to fire.

"No!" Leon warned, pushing the barrel down toward the floor. "It's loaded with shells, you'll hit the kid!"

Now stepping forward, the young man raised his pistol and fired, sending a round right into the side of the zombie's head, making it stumble sideways before collapsing to the floor. The little girl had jumped and let out a small shriek in reaction to the gunshot; now staring at Leon and Claire as if just now noticing them at all. Claire hoped that she would be able to calm the girl down now that the danger had passed, but instead she shrieked again before running off back toward the library.

"Wait, don't go!" The young woman called, immediately starting after her. "You're safer with us, come back!"

Maybe it was maternal instinct kicking in, Claire wasn't really sure, but something was propelling her to go after the little girl in order to keep her safe, and for the moment nothing else mattered, including Leon's calls for her to not go off by herself. Of course, the little girl was a lot faster than she looked, managing to reach a side door that the young woman hadn't noticed before, and now ducking down in order to crawl through a small hole in the bottom.

She easily crawled through by the time Claire got there, and the door itself was all boarded up; fortressed like it was designed to keep out a damn bear, so her only option was to drop down onto her stomach, and crawl through the hole, herself. This was probably the first time in her life that Claire was glad she didn't have larger breasts, since she would never have fit through the hole otherwise, but then she was about halfway through when her hips got caught.

"Are you serious?" She grumbled, trying to twist her way through. "I only weigh a hundred and fifteen pounds."

It was a struggle, but after twisting around so that she was lying on her back, Claire managed to get through, scrambling to her feet so that she could continue chasing after the little girl.

"Claire!" Leon's voice called from behind the door. "Claire, I'm too big to fit through… I'll find another way around!"


	15. Chapter 15 Special Delivery

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Fifteen: Special Delivery**

"Claire, wait!" Leon called, starting after the young woman. "Don't run off alone!"

But Claire didn't stop, nor did the young man actually expect her to, since there was never any stopping a woman when the safety of a child was concerned, so the best thing he could do was follow them. Both Claire and the little girl had a good head start, so Leon rounded the next corner just in time to see the young woman's legs vanish into a small hole at the bottom of a boarded up door.

Stopping once he reached it, the young man realized that there was no way he was going to fit through, so he tried kicking the door open, but this didn't work. Whoever had barricaded this passageway really knew what they were doing, leaving him no way to open it, and even with the extra ammo that the young man had collected from Sergeant Branagh, he didn't have enough to just start shooting aimlessly.

"Claire, I'm too big to fit through!" He yelled toward the hole. "I'll have to find another way around!"

He really didn't want to be separated from Claire again, especially now that there was a kid running around the RPD… seriously, though? How in the hell did some little girl end up wandering around the police station all by herself? He could worry about that later… right now the young man had to find another way around, and since there were no ways back the way he came, the only option was to keep following the hallway.

Of course, there was the matter of some broken vending machines that were just around the next corner, and as much as he wanted to simply keep going, Leon's stomach betrayed him in the form of a rumbling that was painful enough to stop him in his tracks. All right, maybe just a quick snack, he thought as he absentmindedly grabbed a _Butterfinger_ candy bar, but it wasn't until he took that first bite that the young man realized how hungry he really was… and how long it had been since he ate.

So two candy bars and a _Dr. Pepper_ later, Leon was ready to get moving again, so he tossed his wrappers and bottles into the nearby trashcan… although there didn't really seem to be a point, and then he went through the next door. Honestly, the young man hadn't expected to find a library on the second floor of the police station… or anywhere else inside, for that matter, but books weren't going to help him find Claire again, so he looked around the room to explore his options.

There was a staircase off to the left from where he was standing, but it went up, and Leon wasn't trying to go up to the third floor of this place, so he looked around some more until he spotted a set of wooden double-doors. Moving across the thick carpet, and opening the latch, the young man stepped through to find that he was in yet another massive open chamber. After looking over the side of a nearby guardrail, Leon realized that he was on the walkway that he had seen from the first floor lobby.

"How can _anybody_ find their way around this place?" He grumbled to himself as he started walking. "Would it kill them to have some _You Are Here_ markers or something?"

No more doors were visible as he looked around, except for one that was on the complete other side of the room, meaning that he was going to have to walk all the way around, all while hoping that somehow this path would lead him back to where Claire had gone. _Clang-clang-clang_ his footsteps made an echoing sound as he moved along the walkway, but once he moved around so that he was roughly above the main reception desk, there was a window that, unlike the one he had seen near the photo lab stairs, actually allowed him to see outside.

From the window, Leon was able to look out through the back of the police station, and it was funny how the part of Raccoon City that he could see looked almost normal. The streetlights were on, and while some of the buildings were dark, a lot of them had lights in the windows, giving the appearance that the few slow-walking people on the sidewalks were normal as well. He knew damn well that this was not the case; the people were more shambling zombies, and the lights in the businesses had simply been left on when the owners had been…

Now something else caught the young man's attention. At first he thought that it was simply another streetlight that had come on later than the rest, but then he realized two important things about it: The first thing was that it was a lot brighter than the other lights, and the second thing was that it was moving. Sweeping across streets and buildings as it moved closer to the station, it was not until Leon started to hear the sound of heavy rotors, that he realized it was a helicopter.

And not just _any_ helicopter… it was dark colored, and big; much larger than any he had ever seen before, and it was carrying something. Attached to a tether of some kind that was hooked to its underbelly, there was some kind of cargo cage that was swinging back and forth each time the helicopter made a turn. Having to squat down and crane his head straight up in order to keep track of it, and that was when he saw something unexpected. The cargo cage was full of what looked like some kind of capsules… big ones that looked metal, and just as the helicopter was vanishing above the roof… one of them dropped.

Whatever mechanism was holding it to the roof of the cage was released, and the capsule fell while the helicopter could be heard continuing on its way past the police station, on its way to… _wherever_ it was going. At the moment, though, the young man was more concerned with the falling capsule, especially when its outer casing split in half; one of the halves falling down right past the window as the large object inside continued on its way down. Trying as hard as he could to follow it, the object fell past where Leon could see, and then there was an explosion.

No, not an explosion… more like an _impact_ from above as something _really_ heavy landed on the roof, but it didn't stop there. Reflexively looking upward just as the large cracks formed in the ceiling, the young man only had time to gasp before leaping out of the way when the object he had seen falling came crashing through into the building. Leon dove for safety as it crashed down onto the walkway right where he had been standing, but unfortunately he hadn't gotten quite far enough.

The object itself missed him as it struck the concrete floor, but the impact caused a small section of the walkway to shatter. Maybe if the young man had gotten just a few more inches over he would have avoided it, but as the object and dozens of pieces of busted concrete came raining down onto the reception desk, Leon was among the pieces. The desk itself was pulverized, but somehow the young man managed to land sideways across the heavily padded chair.

This probably saved his life; the chair rolling backwards and toppling over, sending him rolling away from the falling concrete, although not sparing him in any way from the pain or soreness that came from this situation. Coughing from the dust that had been kicked up by the crash, he groaned while getting up to his hands and knees, using the fallen chair and the broken computer for support as the lobby fell silent again.

Slowly the dust cleared, allowing him to see that the whole reception area, as well as a couple feet of the walkway above were a total loss; the desk and computer were destroyed, and the object that had crashed was sitting in the middle of it. Wait, no… not sitting… it… or maybe _he_ … was standing up. The object, seen as the dust finished settling, now looked more like a person… sort of. This guy was big, easily standing over seven feet, and built like a professional linebacker.

The skin on his exposed hands and bald head was a kind of tannish-brown, with the rest of his body covered by a closed green long coat, and heavy boots covering his feet. Then he moved, just a little twitch before opening his eyes that were the same color as his skin, and Leon gasped, stepping back when those eyes fell on him. The expression on the giant's face was blank as he took a step forward, and it remained so when he discovered that he was blocked in by the desk's wreckage.

"Hey… hold it right there!" Leon ordered, trying to hide his nervousness. "RPD, just, uh… stay where you are!"

Holding onto a sliver of hope that this person would do as he said, that hope was dashed when the giant grabbed the largest piece of the desk with one hand, a part that made up almost half of it, and tossed it out of his way without showing any signs of physical effort. Again, warning him to stay where he was, but with a lot less confidence in his voice, the young man aimed down at the giant's leg the next time he didn't comply, and pulled the trigger.

 _Bang!_ The gunshot echoed all throughout the lobby as the bullet slammed into the giant's leg, but aside from some movement when it passed through his coat, there was no visible reaction at all. _Bang!_ The next round went into the giant's chest when he kept advancing, but again there was no reaction. But that was fine, since everything in this city insisted on being shot in the brain in order for it to die, Leon aimed a little higher before sending the third bullet right into the giant's forehead.

This time he twitched just a little, but unlike the zombies that immediately collapsed after taking such a hit, the giant just continued to advance. A small amount of some kind of purplish gel that might have been blood started to seep out of the head wound, but then it stopped, forcing the young man to start backing away while he aimed and fired another shot into the same place. Maybe it had been just a fluke or something that caused the giant to not die from a head shot, so the second one was certain to take him down when the bullet pierced his head.

"Oh… shit." Leon whispered when the giant was still unaffected.


	16. Chapter 16 Licker

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Sixteen: Licker**

Beyond the barricaded door, there was a long narrow hallway, and since Claire's legs were a lot longer than the little girl's, she figured that there would be no problem catching up to her. At least, not until she tripped over a mop bucket that had, for some reason, been left out in the middle of the floor. Letting out a loud _oof_ when she ate the floor, the young woman looked up just in time to see the little girl vanish around the next corner, and angrily kicked the mop bucket before jumping up to keep following her.

Running once again across the hardwood floor, Claire rounded the corner just in time to see the little girl drop down and crawl right between a zombie's legs before continuing to run away. Although it had been distracted by her for a second, the zombie turned its full attention to Claire once it's glazed over eyes fell upon her… but _this_ time the young woman was fully armed. Her shotgun was full, and there were plenty of extra shells in her pockets, so she cocked the weapon, and fired.

 _Bang_! The zombie gasped when the shell struck it in the chest, knocking it off its feet, but apparently not killing it, since the creature was still moving around on the floor. In fact, it started to sit up, so the young woman pulled her leg back, and kicked it in the face as hard as she could, silencing the creature when the back of its head was struck on the corner of a nearby baseboard with a wet _crack_.

The little girl was still in sight, and she was trying every door along the hallway, meaning that Claire had to hurry up and catch her again before she was able to vanish down _another_ hallway. Thankfully most of the doors that the little girl tried were locked, giving the young woman a chance to catch up to her, but then this brief moment of luck ran out when the door at the very end of the hall clicked open when she tried it.

"No, no, no, damn it!" The young woman yelled as the little girl passed through it. "I'm not going to hurt you, come back! Please, come back!"

Gone from sight again, Claire had no choice but to run through the door into another kind of storage room. The old fashioned light fixtures let her see everything pretty well, including several boxes with expensive looking artwork sticking out of them, a few old desks, and a certain little girl who was searching for a way out. However, there didn't seem to be any other doors, meaning that if she didn't somehow get around Claire and run again, the young woman had finally caught up to her.

"It's okay… I'm not going to hurt you." She said, trying to catch her breath as she walked across the room. "There's no need to be scared of me, all right?"

But the little girl didn't listen, or was maybe so scared that she couldn't understand… either way, she tried to run past the young woman, but was stopped when Claire grabbed her by the hand. The little girl screamed and pulled to get away, and Claire had to brace herself to keep from getting knocked off balance, but then the screaming and fighting suddenly stopped. The little girl was now frozen in place, staring almost blankly up at the young woman as her eyes got wider and wider… and that was when Claire realized that she wasn't looking at her… she was looking _past_ her.

Suddenly a loud rasping kind of noise reached her ears, almost sounding like breathing, but not like any person she had ever heard before… and then there was the slow _click-click-click_ … the young woman suddenly felt weak in the knees, struggling now to take shallow, labored breaths when she realized that the sound was coming from behind her… behind her… and _above_.

Letting go of the little girl's hand, and very slowly turning around, Claire couldn't help gasping and taking a step backwards when she saw… now what in the fuck was she even looking at? It crawled across the ceiling on all fours, moving like a lizard, but having a body more like a gorilla… but it had been skinned… exposed muscle across the whole creature except for two areas: The hands and feet, which were equipped with claws that were several inches long… and the head.

The head was just… _awful_ to look at; sort of like a featureless skull with a completely exposed brain on top, and when the jaw lowered, it revealed a mouth full of sharp teeth when it made that horrible breathing sound again. Of course, for some reason it didn't seem to notice them, instead moving toward a small open window near the far wall, and it probably would've continued that way, if the little girl hadn't suddenly screamed.

Her paralysis broken, the little girl broke away from Claire, and dove for cover underneath one of the large old desks, and now the creature let out a scream of its own just before diving down in that same direction. It flew right past Claire as if it hadn't even seen her, landing on the floor with clear intent to go after the little girl. Of course, the creature froze in place once the young woman cocked the shotgun… suddenly spinning around and roaring again at the same time that she pulled the trigger.

Like with the zombies, the creature was knocked backwards by the shell, and this probably saved Claire's life, since at the same time she fired, the creature had opened its mouth and shot out its tongue… its tongue that was more than a _meter_ long, with a razor sharp tip that came right at her face. However, being knocked off balance by the shell, the tongue instead just grazed her right cheek instead, before being retracted into the monster's mouth, leaving a burning sensation across whole side of the young woman's face as she stumbled backwards.

Although clearly hurt by the shotgun, the creature was still alive, and it sent out its tongue again, only missing her chest this time because Claire fell down after stumbling. Reflexively cocking the shotgun, and firing again, this time the shell struck the creature's tongue as it was retracting, making the monster shriek and jump backwards, tripping over a broken part of another desk before it can start to recover. For a moment, the young woman wondered if this creature was actually blind, but there was no more time for thought if she wanted to stop it before it recovered.

 _Click-click-bang! Click-click-bang!_ Firing two more shells into the monster, each one seeming to have more effect as its body was peppered, Claire was cocking the weapon for a third shot, when the creature let out an ear-splitting howl before collapsing in a pool of its own blood. The good news was that she had apparently killed this… _licking creature_ … but like with the first zombie she had encountered back at Emmy's Café, it was likely that there were more of them.

"Leon!" She called, taking the radio off her belt. "Leon, come in! There's a monster out there; it's bigger and stronger than the zombies!"

" _Aw shit, there's more of them?!_ " The young man's reply came a couple seconds later. " _Okay, don't panic, don't panic… its pretty slow, so just try to avoid it if you can. I'll come help you when I can, but I've got a situation here… gotta go_!"

On the radio it sounded like she could hear zombies groaning in the background, so Claire decided not to pester him for the moment so that he could focus on getting away from them. As for herself, the young woman was thoroughly exhausted from everything that had happened to her… and that was when the little girl decided to make a break for it. Screaming again as she scrambled out from underneath the desk, the little girl had just stood up in order to run to the door… when Claire tackled her to the floor.

"Let me go!" She shrieked, flailing her arms and kicking her legs while the young woman restrained her. "Let me go! Get off me! Help!"

"Calm down." The young woman replied while getting kicked… a lot. "Calm down, please, I'm not going to hurt you… damn it, you have to calm down before more of those creatures show up!"

But there was just no calming the little girl, and her screams were certain to draw attention… leaving Claire able to only think of one possible way to make her be quiet. Tightening her grip on the little girl, the young woman sat up while pulling her up so that they were both in a kneeling position facing each other, and then there was a loud sound that echoed through the room when she slapped the girl in the face.

Silence fell the moment the hit made the little girl's head turn, but instead of continuing to scream or try to get away, the little girl now looked like she was confused; looking around the room as if she didn't know where she was. Gasping when she looked at the dead creature, and then stopping for a moment after looking at Claire, the little girl came forward, throwing her arms around the young woman's neck while starting to cry.

"It's okay." Claire said softly while returning the hug. "It's okay now, I've got you."

The little girl was shaking so badly that the young woman was having trouble staying still herself. Her hair and clothes were filthy, as if she had been on her own for a good amount of time, and with how tightly she was hugging onto Claire, it had probably been a while since she had run into someone friendly. So she just allowed the hug to continue, stroking the little girl's hair and trying her best to calm her down until eventually she started to.

"You're safe with me now, okay?" She asked, separating from the little girl just enough so that they could look at each other. "I'm Claire Redfield, and I'm gonna look after you… can you tell me your name?"

"Sherry." The little girl whimpered with a sniffle. "My name is Sherry Birkin… my mom said it was too dangerous for me to stay home… and said to come to the police station… but I don't think that was a very good idea."

Starting to cry again, the little girl hugged the young woman, and the only thing Claire could think of at the moment was how much she agreed with the little girl.


	17. Chapter 17 The Final Word

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Seventeen: The Final Word**

Backing away from the still advancing giant, Leon fired his pistol one more time, before deciding that retreat was probably his best option. After all, he had put five bullets into this green coated abomination, including two head-shots, and the giant acted like the young man might as well have been using a spit-ball launcher. So he turned and started running, and the good news was that the giant didn't run after him, apparently preferring to maintain that same slow speed… however, the bad news was that Leon had already reached the large fountain before realizing that he had passed the door that led into Branagh's Burglary Division.

This meant that aside from the front doors, which led into a city full of zombies, his only option was to use the door on the other side of the lobby, which led into an entirely _unexplored_ part of the precinct. The giant was still following, so Leon had to make his decision on the run, resulting in the unexplored door getting closer and closer, until the young man had no choice but to use it. Thankfully it was unlocked, allowing him to pass through, slam the door behind him, and turn around to see that… _maybe_ he would have been better off with the giant.

"Oh no." He said, barely above a whisper. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Aside from the checkerboard tiles on the floor, and the faded blue pain on the walls, the first thing Leon saw was that he was not alone in this hallway. With their shambling footsteps and groans echoing off the tiles, a group of what looked like about a half-dozen zombies started toward him. Some of them wore police uniforms, and some of them must have been civilians that had been trapped there during… all of this…

Suddenly the sound of approaching, and very heavy footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door, and there were too many zombies for him to fight off with just the pistol, meaning that the young man was in a _really_ tight spot. The only saving grace about this situation was that the crowd of zombies were a good distance down the hall in front of him, allowing for the possible of a single escape route: A set of double doors on the right side of the hallway with a plaque on the wall that read:

 _HOMICIDE DIVISION_

What a _fitting_ name for the room, Leon thought as both the zombies _and_ the heavy footsteps got closer. It was entirely possible that there would be no zombies whatsoever inside Homicide Division, but it was _also_ possible for it to have the highest concentration of flesh-eating lunatics in the whole police department. Well, he was almost certain to die if he stayed where he was, so the young man decided to take yet another chance on yet _another_ unknown door.

However, _this_ door was locked when he tried the knob, making a knot form in his stomach while the zombies got closer. Okay, maybe he was going to have to fight his way through them, so he readied his pistol, only to have the door back to the main lobby suddenly explode inward… no, it hadn't exploded… it had been simply struck so hard that it was ripped clean off its hinges. There was so much force behind the blow that Leon had to duck down so that the door wouldn't hit him in the head as it flew by.

For a moment he hoped that the door would take care of some of the approaching zombies, but unfortunately it hit the floor a little too soon for that, and now the giant was entering the hallway as well. Breathing rapidly as he looked back and forth between his two approaching choices of death, the young man instead turned his weapon on the door, shooting the lock several times, making sparks fly until it finally broke open.

"Yes!" He yelled as the latch and lock fell apart. "There you go!"

The giant was only a few steps away, as were the zombies, so Leon rammed his way through the door, slammed it shut behind him, and started running across the room, only to stop in his tracks once again. There were a few zombies in this room as well, so acting on his first instincts, he dove underneath a nearby table. This elongated office area was almost a mirror to how everything had been set up over in Burglary Division, but instead of separate desks, there was a row of long and wide tables that stretched nearly across the entire place.

As far as Leon could tell, he had gotten underneath the first table before the zombies in the room had noticed him, and it was his hope that, if he was really quiet, that he could crawl under these tables all the way to the other side, and out the far door without any of them ever knowing that he was there in the first place. So he started crawling, and he made it to the second table when the doors flew open, allowing the giant to stomp his way into Homicide Division. However, his green coat was now splattered with blood… and there were no zombies following him inside.

So, had this abomination killed the zombies back in the hallway? Leon wondered as he slowly kept crawling. And if so, then what did that mean? The zombies he had encountered so far hadn't been attacking each other, so was the giant something different? Advancing a few steps into the office area, the giant suddenly stopped; now remaining completely still, even as the zombies continued to shamble around the room. Of course, the giant not moving was fine, the young man thought as he reached the third table… he was halfway to freedom, so as long as nothing happened to get its attention, he…

" _Leon_!" Claire's voice suddenly blasted from the radio on his belt. " _Leon, come in_! _There's a monster out there; it's bigger and stronger than the zombies_!"

"Aw, shit, there's _more_ of them?!" He replied in a hushed voice, grabbing the radio and turning down the volume. "Okay, don't panic, don't panic… its pretty slow, so just try to avoid it if you can…

Suddenly the giant started moving; remaining blank-faced as he turned and walked toward the row of tables, only to stop again… before raising both arms up above his head… and then bringing both fists down on the table hard enough to completely destroy it with a loud, wooden _crash_. From where he was hiding underneath the fourth table, Leon could see the giant standing there as if scanning the wreckage… before it took a few steps forward, and began to repeat the process.

"I'll come help you when I can." He continued into the radio. "But I got a situation here… gotta go."

Now, while the giant was raising his arms for the next table, Leon took a second to weigh his few options. The first one was obvious; keep crawling to the end of the tables, and then run through the door at the end of the room. However, there was no guarantee that he would keep finding places to hide from his pursuer, and the risk of getting cornered eventually was too great. The second, and _only_ other option that he could come up with was to wait until the giant was in the middle of breaking a table, and instead of running for the door… duck into the nearby enclosed office before it saw him.

Both options carried a risk of being cornered, but if he could make the giant go past him and then head back the other way, then it was all worth it. So he waited until the green coat-wearing abomination was in the middle of breaking the next table, before rolling out from under cover, and slipping into the office. Continuing to move like this until he had gone around the large desk, that he assumed belonged to whoever was the _Head of Homicide_ , the young man got underneath the desk, and sat there quietly, hugging his knees so that he took up the least amount of space possible.

"Just keep going." He mouthed silently, watching the giant's feet moving from the space under the desk. "Just break your damn tables, and keep going."

And it seemed that the abomination was doing just that; breaking each table until he got to the end, and then starting toward the far door, making the young man sigh with relief… only to stop two steps later. Again, the giant just stood there as if scanning the area… before the knot returned to Leon's stomach when the green coated abomination turned back. _Thump… thump… thump…_ each slow step that the giant took, was like an unseen force punching him in the stomach, and once those huge boots reached the office doorway, the young man knew he was trapped.

There were glass windows looking out into the office, and Leon knew that this was his only chance to escape, so he looked up in preparation to make his move… and that's when he saw it. On the underside of the desk where no one could see it, sitting inside of a holster that was velcroed in place… was a _very_ large pistol. It was far larger than his 9mm, and when the young man pulled it from the pistol, the engraving on the side read:

 _Desert Eagle .50 'The Final Word'_

Without even knowing if this weapon would be any more effective than the 9mm, but having no choice but to act; Leon crawled out of hiding, standing up to face the giant, and aiming the weapon just as his pursuer was reaching out to grab him. _BOOM!_ The recoil was so strong that the young man stumbled back as the large bullet was sent into the giant's chest… and _this_ time it did something.

Although the green coated abomination remained blank faced and silent, the bullet had enough punch to send him reeling backwards, breaking one of the windows with his back, and forcing him to grab onto the window-frame to keep from leaning back any farther. _BOOM!_ Keeping his leg back to absorb some of the recoil, this time Leon remained standing when he fired, but as the office was filled with light and sound, the second bullet went right into the giant's forehead.

His large greenish-brown head tilted backwards with so much force that he lost his grip on the window-frame, causing his massive legs to go up into the air as the pursuer tumbled backwards into the elongated room. Once the noise died down, the young man started hearing the familiar shambling of zombie feet, so he went through the office door, discovering that the abomination was lying on his stomach on the floor… and the zombies, who by then had migrated to the other side of the room, were coming back.

Stepping over the fallen giant, and making his way toward the far door, since he didn't want to waste any more bullets that he might need later, Leon was feeling pretty invincible after defeating his pursuer. In fact, right now he thought that he could take on the whole world after surviving something like that, and he was starting to consider taking on the rest of the zombies in the room, when something caught his eye.

"No way." He whispered, blinking several times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. "No _fucking_ way."

It was movement… but not from the zombies… or anything else entering the room… it was the _giant_. Still just as silent as before, the green coated abomination, regardless of taking a .50 caliber round in the forehead, was starting to get up. He moved his massive arms to brace himself in order to get up to his hands and knees, but by then Leon had already taken off through the door; nearly falling down a sudden stone staircase that was right around the corner… just as the giant took his first heavy step to continue the chase.


	18. Chapter 18 Fear the Living

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Eighteen: Fear the Living**

Trying to be as delicate and understanding as possible, given the current situation, Claire spent several minutes trying to reassure the little girl that she wasn't going to let anything hurt her, while also trying to get her to open up… or at least tell the young woman anything that could be helpful, for instance… did she come there with any other survivors. It helped when she took her back to the broken vending machines so that she could have something to eat and drink, which the little girl swallowed down as if she had been starved for the past few days… and probably had.

"I came here all alone." Sherry said quietly in between bites. "My mommy called when I was home alone… her and daddy work at Umbrella, and all she said was go to the police station."

"Yeah, I was told that, too." Claire replied, unable to hide the disappointment in where they had each sought shelter. "But don't worry, okay? I'm gonna look after you, and… maybe we'll be able to find even more people to help us."

This was a dim hope at best, but the last thing the young woman wanted to do was frighten the little girl even further with the possibility of them being the last people alive. Well, there was Leon, so it wasn't a _total_ lie… and Chief Irons was still around, although Claire didn't know if she would ever be _that_ desperate for help. Yes, he was still a human, but with the way he had humiliated her and tried to disarm her… there was definitely something not right about the man.

"Um… Claire… maybe we should hide instead." Sherry continued nervously. "You were right, there used to be cops here, a bunch of them, but then the zombies came… and then I heard someone going around shooting… I heard him laugh… and then I heard screaming… and I think he took one of them away."

"Sherry, what are you talking about?" The young woman asked, suddenly nervous herself. "Are you saying that someone went around shooting the police officers while they were _still_ human?"

The little girl nodded, and Claire's first instinct was to warn Leon of this possible threat, so she called him on the radio. Reaching him was easy enough, but instead of a normal reply, the young man's voice was hushed and frightened sounding, simply telling her that he couldn't talk right now, and then she lost him as if he had turned the radio off. This was fine, since he might have still been dealing with one of those creatures that she had fought earlier, and the young woman was just clipping it back onto her belt, when a strange sound reached her ears.

" _Sherry_!" A voice called, echoing as if it came from the nearby air conditioning vent.

But there was something else wrong with it as well… the words were accompanied with a kind of animalistic growl that made it sound like the owner was speaking in two different voices at the same time. Maybe it was just the echo of the vents making it sound distorted or something, but regardless of whatever was causing it, every instinct in Claire's body told her to stay away from it. Sherry, on the other hand, gasped and turned toward where the sound was coming from.

"Daddy?!" She called back, looking around. "Claire, that was my daddy's voice! He's looking for me, we have to find him!"

"Sherry, wait!" Claire yelled when the little girl took off running. "Sherry, come back!"

Since she had been kneeling down while the little girl was standing, the young woman was several seconds behind Sherry by the time she got back to her feet. Calling to her again, Claire ran after her, trying in vain to catch the little girl before she reached the door that they had to crawl through. Of course, she wasn't fast enough, and once Sherry vanished through the hole, the young woman had to lose even more time by getting down and slowly crawling through to…

Suddenly Claire froze when she was halfway through… when she felt her pistol being removed from the back of her jean shorts and pressed into the back of her head, accompanied by the soft click of the hammer being pulled back. The young woman's mouth ran dry as she remembered Sherry's warning about someone killing police officers, and she couldn't help letting out a frightened _yelp_ when the shotgun was kicked away from her hands.

"Precious little girls shouldn't play with guns." A familiar voice commented, pressing the gun harder into her head. "Now _very_ slowly put those dainty little hands behind your back… _Redfield_. You _are_ Redfield's little sister, aren't you? Answer me, _girl_."

"Chief Irons?" She replied nervously. "What are you…

Her words became a cough when the big man dropped down so that his knee was pressed down hard into the center of her back, and then the young woman cried out in pain when he grabbed one of her arms; twisting it up behind her back as far as it would go without breaking. Moving the pistol away from her head, and putting it in the back of his belt, Irons twisted her other arm just as far, making her scream. He then kept them both there by twisting both of her thumbs with one hand, while using the other to take out a pair of handcuffs.

"Smart girls do what the police tell them." He continued, snapping on the handcuffs and then tightening them as far as they would go. "But Redfields aren't known for being smart, now _are_ they?"

The Chief finally let go of her wrists, allowing her to move them back down, but then he grabbed her by the hair, making her scream again while he _very_ roughly pulled her the rest of the way through the door. There was no sign of Sherry when Claire was finally able to look around, but given the fact that she was now being pulled to her feet and shoved face first into the nearby wall, this was probably for the best.

Keeping control over her by tightly gripping her hair, Irons kicked her legs apart, and began to search her as if he was arresting a criminal… although she imagined that most police officers didn't do quite so much groping while trying to find such obvious things as the radio she was wearing, which he tossed onto the floor… and when it came to uncomfortable groping, Chief Irons left absolutely _nothing_ untouched. Finally satisfied that she wasn't carrying anything else, the big man spun her around, and a loud _smack_ echoed through the hall when he struck her in the mouth.

"It took me a while to figure out who you were." He said taking out the pistol and putting the barrel up under her chin. "Why is she so familiar, I asked myself… then I had a memory… you've grown up a bit since the last time I saw you, Claire… what is _Claire_ short for, anyway? Clara? Clarice?

"Ch… Chief, listen to me, okay?" The young woman asked, trying to keep her knees from shaking. "Look… I know things are bad in this city, but you…

Again interrupting her words, this time the Chief swung the pistol down and used the grip for a fist-pack when he slugged her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her as she sunk down to her knees. But instead of letting her stay there, this time he put the pistol away, grabbed her by the handcuffs, and twisted them so that she had to get up… but kept her completely bent forward, again as if transporting a criminal.

"Let me guess." Irons said, walking her back into the STARS Office corridor. "You just _happened_ to come wandering into the city in the middle of all this, right? You're just trying to stay alive, right? Don't make me laugh, girl. That fucking brother of yours sent you here to spy on me, didn't he?"

This ranting continued as he moved her through into the hallway that led toward the library, stopping only long enough to shoot a couple random zombies that had wandered in, only to immediately resume. He kept going on about how Chris had done nothing but cause him problems, and that everything had been fine before he and STARS had gone and fucked things up. He just kept going on and on about how her brother shoved his nose where it didn't belong, and this last part made him even angrier.

By this time they had made it back into the library, and Claire was starting to wonder as to where he was taking her, when the Chief suddenly stopped walking. He then turned the young woman around, and locked his hands around her throat, stopping her in mid-gasp. The big man was now red in the face from rage, choking Claire as he tightened his grip while forcing her to walk backwards.

"This is my city, God damn it!" Irons yelled, forcing her to bend backwards once she walked into a table. "Your brother wants to take all this away from me… and so do _you_! You, the little bitch that used to sit at _this_ table with your fucking schoolbooks as if your life meant something!"

Forced all the way down onto her back on the table, Claire gagged and gasped for breath while kicking and flailing around in an attempt to get away… but now she was getting weaker. Suddenly a groaning sound came from across the room, making the Chief have to let go of her throat long enough to turn away and deal with the approaching zombie, allowing her to finally take a coughing, raspy breath. But as soon as she did, the young woman brought up her legs, and kicked Irons in the back.

Now it was the Chief's turn to cry out as he stumbled forward, causing both he and the zombie to fall to the floor when they collided, and giving Claire the chance to run away. However, she was still dizzy and recovering from being choked, so she had just gotten off the table and to her feet, when a loud _bang_ echoed throughout the library. Her vision was slightly tilted to the side as she ran toward the first door that she saw, or rather stumbled, at least until barely registering that she could hear something flying through the air… and something struck her in the back of the head.

Her own pistol, which was clearly what struck her after being thrown, hit the floor at the same time that the young woman fell on her face, and this time her head got a good _smack_ against the floor as well, making her vision start to go dark just as she saw the Chief start walking toward her.


	19. Chapter 19 The Parking Garage

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Nineteen: The Parking Garage**

Making his way down the concrete stairs, Leon could hear the giant starting to pursue him once again, stomping loudly on the floor above with a _thump-thump-thump_ … and those thumps were getting closer. Once down the stairs, the young man had to move more slowly, since the floor in the basement was concrete as well, and he didn't want the echoing to help his pursuer locate him. Of course, it wasn't like there were many places to hide, since the first hallway ended at a simple left and right junction.

"Crap, which way?" Leon whispered to himself, looking at his options. "Which way?"

The stomping sound was definitely on the stairs now, based on how the sound changed, but even though the basement was lit up by singular florescent tube lights spaced out really far on one wall, and therefore not as bright as upstairs, there was no way for him to hide in plain sight. So with a quick decision, the young man started down the left corridor, but maybe this was a mistake, considering that for the first length of the hallway there were no side doors that could be used to escape.

After rounding the next corner, the hallway became less well maintained, as if this was a lesser used section of the precinct. The pain on the walls was unfinished, and there were garbage bags on the ground near the door at the end. However, there was also a side door… which was unlocked when he checked it. Faced again with another choice, Leon could either keep going through the door ahead, or try and hide in the side door, and both were dangerous, since both could result in him being cornered really fast.

Whatever he was going to do, the loud stomps of the giant were getting closer, so the young man was about to go through the neglected door, when he had an idea. It was kind of ridiculous, since he didn't know exactly how the giant was tracking him, but if it was simply sight and sound, then maybe it would work. So Leon kicked open the neglected door as loudly as he could, and then left it partway open while he quietly ducked into the side door, locking it behind him.

The room was completely dark inside, except for the tiny sliver of light that came through underneath from the hallway, and the whole place smelled like metal and stale chemicals, but as much as he wanted to turn on the light and inspect his surroundings, it was a little more important to stay quiet and still, since the stomping of his pursuer was getting so close now that it could be heard approaching through the door.

" _Leon, come in_." Claire's voice crackled through the radio, making him jump. " _Leon, I've got something important to tell you, there's someone going around shooting…_

"Really can't talk right now, Claire." He whispered, almost panicking as the footsteps got closer. "I'll call you back."

Not a moment after turning off the radio, a shadow moved across the light coming in through the bottom of the door, prompting the young man to hold his breath as the giant seemed to pass by even more slowly than usual. In fact, _everything_ seemed to be going more slowly at the moment while sweat beaded up on his forehead, waiting to see whether or not his pursuer was going to fall for the trick.

But then time resumed its normal flow again once the giant was past the door, allowing Leon to let out a loud sigh of relief once he heard it pushing open the neglected door… and the door swung itself shut a second later while the stomping footsteps could be heard getting further away. Not wanting to lose this chance, the young man unlocked and opened the door as quietly as he could, before just as carefully closing it, and feeling an anxious knot forming in his stomach while he crept back the way he came.

With every step he was terrified that the giant would throw open the neglected door and start after him, but this didn't happen as he rounded the corner, and all was still silent when he made his way back to the junction. For a moment he considered going back upstairs, but then the young man saw a directory sign that said _Parking Lot_ , pointing down the path that he hadn't tried before. Well, this was good news, he thought while starting toward it. If he could get into the parking lot, and find a working patrol car… preferably one without a zombie in it this time… then he could go get Claire, and they could drive right back out of the city.

This thought of an easy escape reenergized him a little, and now the young man was moving more quickly down the corridor, ignoring a few more side doors on the way to the parking lot. Now, there was no guarantee that there would be any working cars there, but maybe one of them would have a shotgun inside, or at least a few more bullets that he could use, and with the next door that he pushed open, the young man found himself not outside… but in a small, underground parking _garage_.

As he feared, most of the vehicles were gone, at least the ones that looked like they were in _any_ kind of drivable condition, but there was a large _paddy wagon_ toward the far end… and the metal security shutters were down on what appeared to be the entrance/exit ramp, blocking his way out. Well, if a slow moving vehicle like the truck was going to be any good to him, he needed to get the shutters open, and hopefully there would be a switch or something simple nearby to operate them.

With his footsteps not echoing nearly as much as they had inside, Leon made his way across the nearly empty lot, having to pass right by the truck in order to reach the shutters, and thankfully there was a control box… which had been completely ripped out of its socket. The security shutters were too heavy for him to lift by hand, and he doubted that even the truck could break through it without more space to build up speed, but then his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of light, clicking footsteps… just before he felt the barrel of a gun being pressed into his lower back.

"Hello there." A sultry female voice said as the gun's hammer was pulled back. "The shutters are a waste of time; I already tried… now be a good boy and let me see those hands."

Instantly the memory of Claire trying to warn him about somebody shooting… _something_ , popped into his head, and if that partial message meant what he thought it did, there was no way he was going to let her disarm him. So using a move he was taught at the Academy, the young man spun around, smacking the pistol out of her grip with his free hand, while bringing his own weapon around to point it at her face; a move that was supposed to intimidate criminals into surrendering.

The good news was that he managed to get rid of her weapon, but this woman must've missed the intimidation part, because she immediately bent backwards to avoid being aimed at, while bringing her leg straight up, resulting in Leon's pistol being kicked out of his hand. Now coming back forward as if she were on a spring, the young man caught a glimpse of her short black hair, and the red short-dress that she was wearing… before she throat-punched him.

Instantly unable to breathe, Leon was sent stumbling backwards, but this… remarkably beautiful woman didn't let up. She ran after him, kicking him in the stomach, which made him fall back against the police truck, and when the young man tried to grab her, she ducked down, grabbed the _Mace_ off his gun belt, and shot a burning stream of it right into Leon's eyes, making him scream. But she wasn't done; while he fretted about his eyes, the woman grabbed his arm, and twisted it around behind his back so that he was shoved face-first against the truck.

"Now you just hold still." She said, snapping on his own handcuffs once she restrained his other arm. "I said _hold still_."

Naturally, Leon had been struggling to get away, and this resulted in the wind being knocked out of him when she suddenly kicked his legs out from under him, making him fall onto his back. Nearly blinded by the Mace, the young man felt his attacker getting down and straddling his waist to hold him down, and then he shrieked when she began spraying even more of the burning chemical into his eyes.

"I told you to hold still." The woman said as she started searching him. "Now let's see… _nice_ Desert Eagle… some bullets… a radio… and some ID, here we go. Well… _Officer Leon Kennedy_ … it's very nice to meet you… I'm Ada Wong. Oh, _good news_ , though… see, at first I thought you were a threat, but seeing as you look, act, and even _fight_ like a Rookie Cop… you probably _are_ one."

"What the hell else would I be, lady?!" Leon hissed, his eyes still burning. "And what the hell is you're…

As he yelled, the Mace's effects were starting to wear off, allowing his sight to return after blinking a bunch of times, even though the pain was still there, and his words stopped when he _finally_ got a good look at his attacker. Even though she was dangerous, and clearly prone to violence, she was also probably the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen… a title that until recently, had been held by Claire Redfield… and was now being contested.

"Now, I apologize about our little _misunderstanding_." She continued, tapping the Mace can against his nose. "And I'm even willing to un-cuff you, sounds nice, right? Being able to use your hands again? All you have to do is agree to help me out with a little task, and then we can go our separate ways… but if I even _begin_ to _suspect_ that you are even _considering_ attacking me… this spray will seem like a blessing."

With no choice but to agree to her terms, the woman who identified herself as Ada moved off of him, before _helping_ him up by grabbing the young man by the hair and pulling upward until he was able to stand on his own. Once this was done, she motioned for him to follow her over to the back of the truck, but as Leon quickly noticed, she had yet to remove his handcuffs.

"Oh, you get to keep those for now." Ada explained. "Besides, you don't _really_ need hands to help me push this truck out of the way, now _do_ you?"

Grumbling as he moved to the back of the truck, the woman explained to him that she had already released the parking break, but that she didn't quite have the muscles to push it on her own, followed by a comment about him being a _helpful little mule_ , which the young man didn't appreciate. But why was she moving the truck? If she was trying to start it by popping the clutch, then why were they both pushing at the back? However, once the truck was moved about a meter forward, he realized that there was a door in the wall behind it.

"Thank you, _Officer_." She said, roughly grabbing him and unlocking his wrists once they were done. "I'm fine from here."

There were a million questions going through his mind about what she was doing, and who she was, but Ada didn't stay to answer them. Instead, she simply turned away, and the young man found himself intently watching the way she walked until she finally vanished through the now accessible door… a door that was labeled:

 _HOLDING CELLS_


	20. Chapter 20 Taxidermy

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty: Taxidermy**

For a little while, Claire was only dimly aware of her surroundings; hearing muffled sounds, and seeing blurs of light each time she tried to open her eyes, all while there was a constant dull pain in her stomach, as if being carried by something uncomfortable. This odd sensation of movement continued for a while, and then the air became colder as the area around her grew dark… where was she? Why couldn't she move… or open her eyes all the way?

Now she could hear small echoes, as if she were being moved through some kind of cave or basement, only to feel the air become much warmer, and seeing flickers of orange light added to the blurs. Suddenly the young woman felt herself being flipped around, involuntarily groaning when she was roughly dropped onto a hard surface on her back… and then feeling her arms being yanked above her head before something metallic was placed over her wrists.

Groaning again, and moving her head from side to side in an effort to wake up, Claire felt the same metallic substance being placed on her ankles, while memories of what had happened, slowly came back to her. She remembered chasing Sherry, only to get violently _arrested_ by Chief Irons… he had been ranting about her brother and the city, hurting and degrading the young woman more and more each time something upset him… and then she had tried to escape, only to get hit in…

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted when there was a splashing sound, and she was already coughing before realizing that a bucket of _really_ cold water had been thrown onto her. The good news was that the shock caused her to fully open her eyes as she sat up… but the bad news was that she _couldn't_ sit up. Struggling to see what was holding her down, the young woman looked up at her wrists, only to find that they were tightly chained down to the surface that she was lying on… as were her ankles.

Gasping when she realized that she was chained down onto some kind of wooden table, Claire's breathing became rapid as fear set in, especially when she didn't recognize the place she had been taken to. The walls were stone, like, _old_ stone, and the room was lit up by metal torches that were bolted to pillars, which held up the ceiling. There were also several work benches scattered throughout, and several figures that looked like maybe… _mannequins_ on the far side? It was hard to tell in the flickering light, but then Claire was distracted when another bucket of water was thrown onto her.

"Good morning, _Redfield_." Chief Irons said, setting the bucket down. "Welcome to my little _sanctuary_ … sorry about the rather _rude awakening_ , but I wanted to make sure you were awake before we got started."

"Started?" She asked, still feeling pain in the back of her head. "What's going on? Where are we? Why are…

Her words became an agonized groan when the Chief walked up to the table, and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her head upward as far as the chains would allow, before undoing her ponytail. He then moved her hair around so that it fell around her shoulders, and finally pushed her back down so that her head banged on the table in the same place she had been hit by the flying pistol.

"Your _brother_ talked too much, _too_." Irons replied, moving away from the table, toward the mannequins. "This is all hit fault, you know… everything happening in my city... I did everything, _everything_ Umbrella said for years, and then in one night, Claire… one _fucking_ night… that _idiot_ ruined it all. They evacuated the Mayor… but Umbrella couldn't be bothered to save _me_."

As he ranted, moving farther away from the table, Claire pulled and twisted around against the chains, while also realizing that the Chief was basically confessing to taking bribes from the Umbrella Corporation… so was everything that happened in Raccoon City _really_ Umbrella's fault like Chris had said in the newspaper? Had they _really_ had secret facilities that performed ungodly experiments? Well, the dead were walking the Earth, so why not?

Of course, her thoughts about conspiracies and secrets would have to wait, because when Irons reached the part of the room where the mannequins were stored, where the torch hadn't been lit, the young woman could suddenly think of nothing else once it was. As the orange flickering light illuminated that part of the room, she realized that the figures weren't really mannequins at all… each was female, and some wore ripped up police uniforms, but what each had in common was the expression of horror on their faces… especially a familiar looking one that she had once seen lying on the Chief's desk.

"You know, taxidermy used to be my hobby." Irons explained, walking over toward a workbench while Claire stared wide-eyed at his _trophies_. "It gave me something to do, since most women always rejected me… hell, some even _pressed charged_ just because I didn't want to hear the word _no_ after paying for an expensive dinner… can you believe that?"

Still staring at the stuffed figures that had once been people, Claire tried to scream, but even when faced with the monsters of this city, she had never felt so scared in her life, and therefore unable to make a sound. The Chief's rantings continued, however, explaining how once everything went to hell, he had decided that if he was going to die there, so was everyone else. The big man was almost bragging about how he had hunted down the surviving people in the precinct; shooting the men on sight, and then bringing the women back to this place.

"Yes, I know you're scared, Redfield." Irons continued, picking up a tool-bag and coming back. "But you should consider yourself lucky… I remember when your brother and his STARS friends had a surprise birthday party for you in their office… I think you were turning either thirteen or fourteen. Either way, if Chris had left you alone for even a _minute_ that day, I would've brought you down here _back then_ … so think of it as having _five_ extra years of life."

Some of the color drained out of Claire's face when he set the bag next to her, and began to take out several tools that were just… _awful_. She didn't want to think about what each one's purpose was as he lined them up next to her, and once they were laid out, the young woman couldn't stop shaking when he reached over and unzipped her vest. Finally finding her voice, she screamed as loud as she could, but Irons didn't seem overly concerned with this as he opened her vest to expose her undershirt.

"You can scream all you want, Redfield." The Chief replied, picking up the first of his tools. "I've been doing this for years, and one of the first things I did was have the entrance soundproofed… anyway, this tool here is for cutting away your clothes, so hold still."

"Chief, don't do this." Claire begged with tears starting to run down her cheeks. "Please, _please_ , don't do this to me. I don't…

Stopping her words by putting his free hand over her mouth, Irons brought up the tool to the top of her shirt, and hooking it underneath the collar, but stopping when the room suddenly echoed with a loud _chit-click_. Both looking toward the heavy wooden door at the same time, they had already recognized the sound as coming from a shotgun, but were surprised to see who was holding the weapon.

"Stop it!" Sherry Birkin yelled in a shaky, frightened voice. "Stop hurting Claire!"

The little girl was struggling to hold the large weapon, with the barrel moving around since it was _clearly_ too heavy for her. Claire didn't know what to think of this new development, since things could easily go bad for the little girl who was trying to save her, but Chief Irons apparently found the situation amusing. Slowly setting the tool back on the table, and making sure to grope the young woman again after taking his other hand off her mouth, he quickly drew his pistol…only to have the room light up for a second when Sherry pulled the trigger.

Bang! Since the little girl was so far away, the whole side of the room was peppered by the shotgun shell, with Chief Irons groaning when he got about ten of the little pellets in his left arm and leg, while Claire gasped when one of them grazed her cheek, causing a drop of blood to run down. Thankfully, most of the ones headed for her were deflected by the table, and as for the little girl, the force of the shotgun's recoil was enough to knock her off her feet.

The Chief definitely took the worst of it, though, dropping his pistol and stumbling back across the room, where he finally fell on his rear on top of a really large drain cover… which Claire was sickened to think was used for the blood of all his victims. However, Irons wasn't finished just yet, taking out the pistol he had stolen from Claire, and aiming it at the little girl, when a loud banging sound came from below.

" _Sherry_!" The same inhuman dual-voice screamed from nowhere.

Suddenly a red spire broke its way up through the drain cover right next to the Chief, and it took a second for Claire to realize that it was an arm… a huge, clawed arm that remained still for a moment while the armored plate in its forearm opened up to reveal a large, yellow… eye? Yes, it was an eye, rotating as it took in its new surroundings, only to stop once it focused on Irons, and then grabbing onto him. The big man screamed as it pulled him, and the whole drain cover, back down into the darkness… there were a few gunshots… followed by a slicing sound… and then it was quiet.

"Sherry!" Claire whispered urgently, not wanting to attract the eye-creature's attention. "Sherry, help me!"

The little girl had been just as frightened by what happened to the Chief, but still managed to get up, and run over to the young woman. The chains around her wrists and ankles were bolted tightly, and Sherry was struggling to undo the first one, when there was more movement in the room. Something had been thrown back up the drain pipe… something that sprayed blood all around when it landed… and causing both Claire and Sherry to scream when they saw that it was the top half of Irons' body.

" _Sherry_!" The voice yelled again, this time with a metallic clang-clang-clang getting closer as it climbed an unseen ladder.


	21. Chapter 21 Ada and Ben

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty One: Ada and Ben**

"Hey!" Leon called, watching the door close behind her. "Ada, wait!"

It had been awfully nice of her to leave all his things behind, which the young man quickly gathered up before heading through the door to the holding cells as well. Of course, the woman already had a head start down the dimly lit hallway beyond, meaning that he had to pick up the pace in order to catch up. Since he was still unsure of the police station's layout, he didn't know which way the holding cells were, or even if that was where she was going, leaving him no choice but to try every door on the way.

The first one that he came to was marked _Kennels_ , and when he pushed open the metal door, it was a horrific smell that awaited him. The metal grated cages, clearly used for holding the RPD's K-9 Officers, had all been torn open, and while most of them were empty, there were a few that held the mutilated remains of what looked like dogs. This brought up an interesting question, as he held his nose at the ghastly scene… was it just humans that could be turned into the cannibalistic monsters that he had seen… or could animals be affected as well?

Aside from the remains and cages, there didn't appear to be anything else useful in this room, nor was Ada anywhere to be seen. He needed to keep moving in order to find her, and it was just occurring to him, as he turned around, that he needed to check up on Claire Redfield as well… however these thoughts were quickly ended. The good news was that his search for Ada was over… but the _bad_ news was that the barrel of her pistol was once again against his head.

"Why are you following me?" She asked plainly, pulling the hammer back. "Answer quickly, please."

His reasons for doing so had sounded a lot better in his head than when he simply blurted out that it was dangerous to run off by herself, and that as an Officer of the RPD, it was his job to look out for civilians, _especially_ in a situation like this one. In response, Ada didn't even try to stop herself from laughing, since the young man was doing _such_ a good job of keeping things under control, but it did cause her to un-cock her pistol and walk away.

"Ada, I'm _serious_." Leon continued, following her further down the hallway. "There's things out there _worse_ than the zombies, and we really _should_ stick together. What are you looking for back here, anyway?"

"Not that it's any of your business." Ada replied, peeking around the next corner before moving forward. "But I'm looking for a man named Ben Bertolucci… the computer upstairs said he was in one of the cells, and he has information that I need."

The young man had never met a woman who was as collected and focused on her objectives as Ada Wong was, and even though she had a bit of an attitude problem… as well as a violent streak… Leon couldn't help being impressed by the way she handled herself. She was so confident, and obviously intelligent… and the way that she walked was nice to look at as well… as was the rest of her.

"Damn, the gate's stuck." She grumbled, pressing the release button. "Looks like I might need you for _something_ , after all."

In front of them was a kind of chain-link door that was operated by the electronic switch that Ada was pressing, and while it moved a little each time, it was clear that the door had come partially off its track at some point. Well, this was his chance to impress her, so holstering his pistol, the young man stepped up to the gate, and pulled on it as hard as he could… resulting in him letting out a _yelp_ as he fell backwards when the gate opened a lot easier than he thought it would.

Knocking over a large metal trashcan as he fell, causing old, rotting garbage to scatter across the floor… which he landed right on top of… the woman laughed again, this time so hard that she had to cover her mouth to keep from being too loud. Ada shook her head, still muffling the last of her laughter while passing through the open gate, and Leon was turning red as well as he got up… although for a different reason.

Trying not to think about how clumsy he had just been, Leon followed her into the small holding cells area, which consisted of a single long room, filled with three barred containment rooms. The first two were empty, but the third was not only locked, but occupied as well. The cell was filled with supplies like water and canned food, as if someone was making a shelter out of it, and lying on one of the cots, was a man with short brown hair and beard stubble, as if he had been there a while.

"Hey, you." Ada said sternly, rattling the cell door when he didn't respond. "Are you Ben Bertolucci, the reporter?"

Still there was no response from the man, and now that they were closer, Leon could see that his eyes were closed. He was breathing, though, with his arms behind his head as if he were sleeping, but this nap was ended when Ada took off one of her shoes, before tossing it at him. The man groaned, sitting up in surprise after the shoe hit him in the forehead, and then looking around as if momentarily forgetting where he was.

"Christ, what is it with you people?" The man grumbled, rubbing his forehead, and then his eyes after swinging his legs off the cot. "I'm trying to sleep here, so grab whatever water and food you can reach through the bars, and then kindly fuck off."

Leon was already becoming irritated with this person, mostly because of his casual attitude during such a crisis, and he was about to say something back to him, but was interrupted when Ada raised her pistol and fired. _Bang!_ The bullet cut right through one of the chains that kept the cot anchored to the bars, making the man gasp as he found himself tumbling down onto the floor.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you how to speak to a lady?" The woman asked, just as calmly as before. "Now the first thing you're going to do is toss my shoe back over here… and then you are going to stand up, and tell me everything you know about what happened to this city… particularly about any missing persons."

The smugness and carefree expression was gone from Ben's face as he grabbed the fallen shoe, sliding it across the floor so that it passed through the bars, and then admitting to who he was, while Ada slid her foot back into the shoe. Unfortunately, the reporter claimed to not really know anything beyond what was published in the newspapers, and as for missing persons… half the city could be counted in those numbers.

"I was still investigating Chief Irons when everything went down." Ben continued, looking like he was scared to move. "I don't know how he became Chief, let alone a cop at all, with the string of sexual and violent charges against him over the years, not to mention the accusations of taking bribes for _God knows_ how long, and…

"I don't care about all that." The woman interrupted. "I'm looking for my boyfriend; his name is John Clemens, and he was working out of a branch office of Umbrella, based in Chicago, when he suddenly disappeared six months ago. I heard a rumor that he was transferred to Raccoon City, and that's all I know."

Leon wasn't sure why he felt a sudden twinge of disappointment when Ada mentioned that she had a boyfriend… then again, most women who looked like her were _rarely_ single for very long… if ever at all. Anyway, this wasn't the time to stand around gossiping about things like that; what they all needed to do was stick together, regardless of their differences, and even if Ben was a jackass, he was still an extra hand that could hold a gun.

"Look, we can figure all this out later." The young man said. "Right now we, _all of us_ , need all the help we can get… does anyone know where they put the keys to these cells?"

"Sure… I've got it right here, Officer." The reporter replied, taking the key out of his pocket. "But I'm not leaving this cell… at least not until you and your buddies upstairs can give me the all clear."

For a moment Leon was dumbfounded by what Ben was saying, and then it dawned on him that maybe the reporter had been down in that cell for so long, he was unaware that the person standing in front of him was the last police officer around… a fact that Ben was genuinely surprised to discover once he was told. Like a lot of people who didn't understand their situation, the reporter turned paler with each description that the young man gave him about the state of Raccoon City.

"I know you feel safe in there." Leon continued. "But there's no help coming, and those zombies are the least of your problems, so if you want to stay alive, you're going to have to come with us."

"Okay, I get it." Ben replied, coming to the door and reaching around to unlock it. "But do you even have a plan for getting out of the city?"

Leon had to admit that he honestly did not have a plan, at least, not beyond taking shelter at the police station, and that had been a bust. Thankfully, Ben remembered hearing some officers talking about trying to get out through the sewers via the manhole in the Kennels… but that had been a few days before, and he hadn't heard from them since. Of course, even if they could get the key that the others mentioned, there was no guarantee that the sewers were any safer than the precinct.

"They mentioned the old key box in the Press Conference Room." The reporter continued, opening the door and stepping out. "Couldn't tell you beyond that, though."

"It's more than we had a minute ago." Ada replied, turning toward Leon. "Looks like keeping you around was a good idea _after all_ , Officer… try not to take too long bringing the key back… I'll be here."

"I'll go, but I don't know where that conference room is." The young man answered. "Ben, you're going to have to go with me… I know it's dangerous, but I'll keep you safe."

The reporter was not too keen on the idea of having to go back upstairs, nor did he like the fact that Leon was a rookie. However, there didn't really seem to be a choice in the matter, so the two of them walked back through the chain-link door, making their way back toward the parking lot.


	22. Chapter 22 The Evil Eye

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty Two: The Evil Eye**

"Sherry!" Claire called urgently as the climbing sound got closer. "Sherry, untie me!"

The little girl had been understandably distracted by everything that had happened with Chief Irons, but thankfully she was still able to start working on the chains that held the young woman down on the table. However, the bolts were fastened really tight, especially for a little girl like Sherry, who struggled with all her might to undo the one on her right wrist, and was just starting to loosen it, when the monster appeared.

Slowly climbing up through the broken grate, the first thing that Claire saw was the face of someone that had probably once been a man. His hair was a lot like Leon's, but his skin was discolored more reddish than the zombies, and although one side of the top half of his body looked mostly normal, the other side did not. His right side was heavily mutated; with muscle mass and bone structure that could never belong to a person… and then the skin plates opened on his red, elongated arm… the clawed tentacle that had killed Irons… revealing that same eye that they had seen before.

The only saving grace in this situation was that its body was too big to fit through the grate, making it roar in anger, and also causing Claire to snap out of her paralysis. The eye-monster roared and beat the concrete floor in an attempt to force its way through, and the little girl just stood there, wide-eyed with a terrified look on her face. Thankfully, though, Sherry had managed to loosen the bolt enough for the young woman to free herself.

Rolling over and undoing the bolt that held her other wrist, Claire's breathing was rapid, and she was even more terrified now than when Irons had been about to cut her, but she still managed to free her other wrist before sitting up to free her ankles. Even though she didn't look at the roaring, flailing monster, she could hear cracks starting to form in the concrete around the grate, meaning that she had to hurry and get Sherry out of there before it broke through.

" _Sherry!_ " The monster's dual voices roared as it struck the concrete hard enough to increase the cracks.

Not wanting to even know why this thing was calling the little girl's name, Claire focused solely on freeing herself, before jumping off the table, and picking up the fallen shotgun, as well as the Chief's pistol, which was a bit larger than her previous one. The young woman regretted how long it took to secure them, but then she scooped Sherry up into her arms, and ran for the only door that she had seen in this place.

The monster roared even louder when she shouldered her way through the heavy wooden exit, but thankfully this sound was muffled a bit when she shoved the door closed again from the other side. There was no visible way to lock it, and the young woman didn't recognize the cobblestone tunnel they were now in, but there was only one way to go. Having been unconscious during the trip there in the first place, Claire was lost, and she just hoped that she wouldn't lead them into a dead end.

More torches bolted to the walls provided illumination as she carried the little girl down the tunnel, and at the end was some kind of metal service elevator. This didn't make much sense to have something like that in a place like this, but it provided a means of escape, and right now that was all Claire needed to know. The elevator car was already there, so the doors started to open as soon as she pressed the switch, but then a loud _crash_ reached her ears, along with a familiar roar that almost sounded… closer.

She had just carried the little girl inside, when the wooden door to Chief Irons' workshop was literally knocked off its hinges as the monster rammed its body into it, and the creature was not even stunned after crashing into the stone wall beyond. Pausing only long enough to figure out where they were, the eye on the monster's arm opened again for a second, before it came running down the corridor at full speed.

"Come on, come on." Claire begged, pushing the button even after the doors started to close. "Close… close!"

It seemed like everything was moving in slow motion as the monster got closer, seeming to almost match the rate at which the doors of the elevator were closing… but luckily the doors had just a little bit of a head start. Roaring again as the doors finished closing, Claire jumped backwards when the metal dented slightly inward from impact, but then she was able to sigh with relief when she felt it start upward.

Still clinging onto the little girl for the whole ride, the young woman hoped that she would be able to find her way around from… wherever they were… but was surprised when the elevator doors opened, allowing her to step out into Chief Irons' office. In fact, they were now standing just behind his desk, with the elevator concealed by some kind of false wall, but then panic overtook her when the doors started to close again.

The last thing she needed was for the eye-monster to use the elevator to come after them… if it was even intelligent enough to do so… but not wanting to take any chances, Claire kicked over the Chief's chair, pushing it into the path of the doors so that they couldn't close. She had no way of knowing if this would do any real good, since the monster had broken through solid concrete easily enough, but it was likely to give them a head start.

" _Sherry_!" The muffled roar came from far below.

Not even bothering to set the little girl down, the young woman ran for the door, passing through the short hallways and office that she had gone through after first arriving, and then continuing on into the walkway above the main lobby. Did she have the slightest clue where she was going? No. However, putting distance between herself and that creature seemed like a pretty good idea, especially since it seemed to want Sherry for some reason.

Unfortunately, part of the walkway seemed to have collapsed in the brief time since she was there, and it was too far to jump, even if she _hadn't_ been carrying Sherry… but the debris and wreckage had fallen so that there wasn't much distance between where she was, and the pieces that had landed on the front desk. So now instead of jumping, it was more like a difficult climb, and soon the two of them had reached the first floor.

"Claire?" Sherry asked, seeming to come out of her shock. "W… what happened?"

"Everything's going to be okay, Sherry." The young woman reassured her, making her way across the lobby. "I'm gonna find us somewhere safe to rest."

The little girl didn't argue, but now Claire had to somehow make good on her promise; starting to head for Burglary Division, but remembering that she had encountered the tongue-creature on that side of the precinct. So, making a split decision, she decided to take shelter over near Homicide Division on the other side instead, entering the door into that wing, and finding a small pile of permanently dead, partially crushed zombies near the entrance to her destination.

For a moment, Claire considered trying to find a working car in the parking garage, but this idea was scrapped after she opened the door to Homicide Division, only to quickly close it again to avoid drawing the attention of the zombies that were shambling around inside. Well, since the zombies down the tiled corridor seemed to have been crushed by something, this was now the only way for her to go, so Claire tried every door that she found along the way, only to discover that all of them were locked.

All of them, except for the one at the very end, a door that was labeled Press Conference Room, and thankfully there were no zombies or other creatures waiting inside. Allowing the door to shut behind them on its own, the young woman set Sherry down while taking a moment to look at their new surroundings. However, aside from a bunch of overturned chairs, dozens of scattered papers on the floor, and a microphone stand in front of an RPD logo that was on the wall… there didn't seem to be anything useful in this room.

"Claire, are you okay?" The little girl asked.

She nodded that she was, but the truth was not quite so simple. The young woman was completely out of breath, exhausted from all the running she had just done, to the point where she was starting to get dizzy, and in desperate need of one of the chairs that she nearly fell down into. On top of that, though, some dried blood flaked off in his hand after touching her cheek, from where Sherry had shot at Irons, and Claire could feel bruises starting to form from where he had been hitting her.

Not wanting to think any more about what that bastard had done to her… and came _close_ to doing to her… the young woman struggled to focus her mind, and regain some sense of control in this awful situation. After all, Sherry needed her, so Claire started to regain this feeling of somewhat normalcy by zipping up her vest and putting her hair back into a ponytail, in an attempt to undo some of what Irons had done.

Some blood flaked off in her hand from touching her face, making the young woman briefly relive the moment where Sherry had shot the Chief… and nearly her as well during the rescue. But then her thoughts were interrupted when the little girl walked up to her, holding out a cup of water. It took Claire a second to realize that she had gotten this from a partially filled water cooler on the far end of the room, and also to realize how thirsty she was.

"Thank you, Sherry." She said after drinking down the contents. "Don't forget to have some for yourself, too."

"I won't." The little girl replied, taking back the cup. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Managing to smile, when it almost felt like she had forgotten how, Claire was touched by Sherry's concern for her, and this feeling made everything going on a little easier to deal with. It was also nice to get a brief chance to rest, which she hadn't gotten a chance to do since leaving the STARS Office with Leon. Since there hadn't been any radio contact with the young man, she hoped that he was all right, but then these thoughts stopped when the door handle started to move.

Motioning for Sherry to come back over to her, the two of them took cover behind the chair as the door slowly opened, and since she had been expecting another one of those creatures, she couldn't help smiling again at what she saw next.

"Leon?" She asked happily as he came through the door.


	23. Chapter 23 Continued Pursuit

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty Three: Continued Pursuit**

After leaving Ada behind in the holding cells, where Leon actually felt was one of the safer places for her, he and Ben Bertolucci made their way back through the parking garage, into the main precinct. This journey took a lot less time and was a lot easier than the young man remembered, since this time that giant wasn't stomping its way after him… and he hoped to never see the damn thing again.

If anything, the basement of the RPD was _too_ damn quiet, now, with the only sounds being the hum of the fluorescent lightbulbs, their own breathing, and the soft echo of their footsteps off the bare concrete floor. At least once the two of them got back up the stairs into the first floor, back into Homicide Division, there was some noise while the remaining zombies still shambled about.

They were all moving toward the other side of the room though, as if something had recently caught their attention, and after explaining his plan to simply sneak past them again, Leon quietly led the way back into the room. Ben followed, nervously though as they ducked behind an overturned table, and so far the zombies hadn't seemed to notice them. This brought up the question as to how exactly they hunted in the first place… their eyes? Sounds? Changes in room temperature?

Either way, the young man hoped that they would be able to avoid whatever it was, since he really didn't have enough bullets to take them on, at least not without being _really_ careful. The tension increased the closer they got to the far doors, where the zombies were gathered, with both of them starting to sweat since they could be spotted at any moment, but then, for once, luck was on their side… in the form of the exit sign behind them falling to the floor, and letting out a small shower of sparks.

Well, apparently sight and sound _was_ one of the ways that the creatures hunted, and in reaction to the falling sign, all of the zombies slowly began migrating over toward the other side of the room, bypassing the two of them completely. Not wanting to lose this chance, Leon and Ben ran for it, hearing some groans behind them, but not stopping to look back until they made it through the door, and slammed it shut once they were through.

After that, and stepping over the crushed zombies that the young man knew were work of the giant, their journey was smooth sailing once again, with Ben leading him further down the tiled hallway. Passing door after door, the reporter led him to the last one at the far end, and the first thing that Leon saw upon entering the room that was certainly set up for holding press conferences, was movement.

"Leon?" A familiar voice asked as two figures stood up from behind a chair.

"Claire!" The young man exclaimed, nearly running over to her and the little girl, once he realized it was them.

Nearly forgetting all about the reporter while rushing over to hug the young woman, Leon was incredibly happy that she was safe, and that she had managed to find the little girl she had been chasing. However, something was wrong… Claire was holding onto him more tightly than ever before, burying her face into his shoulder, and it almost felt like she was trembling. From his Academy training, he knew that sometimes it was better to comfort an upset person than directly asking what was wrong, so that was what he did.

"I'm here now, Claire, everything's going to be okay." He said, softly stroking her hair as the hug continued. "From now on we stick together, no matter what, so I can keep you safe."

The young woman didn't say anything, instead nodding her head just enough so that he would know she heard him, and during all this, Ben was headed toward the old key box over near the water cooler. The young man also introduced himself to the little girl, and the fact that Claire was clinging so tightly to him, probably helped Sherry Birkin to trust him as well… although he hated to see the young woman so shaken up.

"I got it, Leon." Ben announced, holding up the key in question as he walked back toward them. "It's nice to see a few more humans around, huh? I'm Ben…

Suddenly his words were interrupted by a loud _crash_ , but unlike the others they had heard, this one was _not_ distant. In fact, it was right next to them, caused by a large section of the wall exploding inward while something large… and _green_ … literally busted its way into the room. Claire and Sherry reacted immediately, as if expecting to see such a thing… but then stopped as if realizing that they had made some kind of mistake.

"Run!" Leon yelled, breaking everyone out of their paralysis.

The green coat-wearing giant had broken through on the wrong side of the room, giving them a clear run to the door, and this was good, because the young man knew that there were only a few bullets left in his Desert Eagle. _Thump-thump-thump_ , the giant slowly stomped its way after them, and they could still hear the approaching footsteps even after leaving the room. Now running back down the tiled hallway, it was starting to look like they were safe… when the wall exploded _again_.

This time it was literally right next to them, filling the hallway with dust and debris as the giant continued its pursuit, and although Leon, Claire, and Sherry were still in front of it… Ben's escape route had been blocked. Before the dust had even completely cleared, the monster swung its huge fist, striking the reporter in the chest so hard that he left a huge dent in the opposite wall after flying into it.

"Ben!" Leon yelled, coughing from the dust while drawing his Desert Eagle. "Get the hell away from him!"

BOOM! The flash of light from the first shot illuminated the hallway for a moment as the large caliber bullet was slammed into the giant's shoulder, staggering it, and Sherry had to cover her ears from the second shot that followed, toppling the monster after blasting it in the side of the head. As it had done before, the whole room shook when the giant fell, but on top of knowing it was only a matter of time before it got up again, the young man needed to check on Ben.

The reporter remained where he had fallen, but was now motionless and silent as Leon ran over to him. It was obvious that he was dead, since the top of his chest cavity as well as a good portion of his face had been crushed by the impact, but he had still hoped… especially since there were only a handful of people alive in Raccoon City at all… and Ben Bertolucci was no longer one of them.

"Damn it." The young man whispered. "I should've left you in your cell… I'm sorry, Ben."

Looking down at the reporter's hand, Leon saw that he was still clutching the key that he had retrieved from the box in the press conference room, but it seemed wrong to simply take it from him… that is, until the giant started to move. Suddenly the young man had no problem pulling the key out of Ben's hand, before getting up and instinctively picking Sherry up in one arm so that they could all move faster.

"Come on!" He yelled, taking Claire's hand as the giant started to get up. "We have to move!"

The little girl held onto him tightly, and Claire's grip on his free hand was just as intense while they ran the rest of the way down the tiled hallway. With no choice but to run back through Homicide Division, Leon kicked the double doors open, running back through the office room without breaking stride, but then having to let go of Claire's hand long enough to punch the one zombie that got in their way, in the mouth.

The zombie reeled backwards, tripping over an overturned table and falling over as the three of them continued onward, and Leon grabbed Claire's hand again in time for them to make their way down the concrete stairs into the basement. There was no sign of the giant continuing its pursuit, but the young man kept up the pace anyway, just in case. He did, however, slow down quite a bit once they were back in the parking lot… mostly because he was out of breath, though.

Setting Sherry down, but still not letting go of Claire's hand, Leon led them past the useless cars, and back into the holding cells, where Ada was still waiting for them, although she had moved to in front of the kennel door. Locking the parking lot door behind him, the three of them moved up to Ada, and the young man tried to say something, although he was too out of breath to do so.

"How cute, you've got a little girlfriend." The woman commented, prompting them to stop holding hands. "Where's Ben?"

Breathing heavily, Leon explained to her what happened with Ben and that giant, but Ada didn't seem to care anything about the reporter's fate or the new members of their small group; instead only showing real interest when the young man gave her the key, and again commenting that he once again proved that he wasn't as useless as she thought.

"Your friend just died." Claire suddenly scolded. "How can you be so heartless?"

"Ben was no friend of mine." Ada replied, smirking a little at her. "And in case you haven't been paying attention, _little girl_ … a lot of people have died recently. A whole _city_ of them, in fact, so what's one more?"

"Hey, there's no need to be hostile, all right?" Leon interrupted, moving between them. "Ben gave his life so that we could get that key, so the important thing now is for us to stay alive… _all_ of us."

Claire smiled a little as he said these words, but Ada scoffed at them, shaking her head a little before opening the door into the kennels. And as the odor and gruesome scene within assaulted their senses, Leon was reminded that just because they had found a possible way out of the RPD, that didn't mean that they were safe… and the journey ahead was going to be a long one.


	24. Chapter 24 Into the Sewers

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty Four: Into the Sewers**

Beyond the kennels, a sight that made Claire sick to her stomach, was a manhole cover, but this was not where the key that Ben had lost his life for was needed. Instead, Leon flipped open the built-in maintenance handle, and between him, the young woman, and Ada, the heavy metal cover was slowly opened with a rusty _squeak_. Now peering down inside, She could see a few dim service lights, but Claire could also hear the sound of water.

"Looks pretty grim down there." Ada commented, before looking over at Claire. "You want to go first?"

"Don't worry, Claire, _I'm_ going first." Leon interrupted before she could say anything back. "You just make sure Sherry stays safe."

Even though back at college, something like this would have been considered an attack on her own bravery, the young woman knew that he was right, especially since she didn't trust this Ada person to look after anyone but herself. Plus, after everything she had been through since entering Raccoon City, it was nice to feel like someone was looking after her… Leon made her feel safe.

"We have to go down _there_?" Sherry asked nervously as Leon started down the ladder. "Claire… I'm scared."

"There's nothing to be scared of, Sherry." Claire lied, putting her arm around the little girl. "Just stay close to me, and everything will be fine."

The little girl nodded, prompting Ada to shake her head while the two of them started down the ladder; Claire going first so that she could catch the little girl in case she fell, and the woman in red bringing up the rear. However, just as the young woman was reaching the bottom, and finding herself up to her ankles in _really_ cold water, everyone jumped as passage echoed with a familiar sounding _BOOM!_

"Leon!" Claire called urgently, starting to run down the tunnel.

Rounding a corner, the young woman raised her shotgun, seeing that Leon was pinned underneath some kind of giant… something… but she didn't pull the trigger, after realizing that the thing wasn't moving. A painful knot formed in her stomach once her eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting enough for her to see that the young man was crawling out from underneath some kind of huge, man-size spider… and with how she felt about arachnids in general, the young woman was glad that he had gone first.

"Are you okay?" She asked, trying not to look at the spider as she helped pull him out by grabbing his hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Claire." He replied, trying to hide how shaken up he was by the experience. "Damn thing came from the ceiling; good thing I had my Desert Eagle… but we might be in trouble if that giant comes back."

"Oh good, you're still alive." Ada said as she and Sherry came around the corner. "Hmm… is that a… _spider_? Well, I guess we can confirm that animals are affected the same way that humans are."

As she helped Leon to his feet, besides wanting to hug him again, Claire wanted nothing more than to punch the woman in red right in her smug, unfeeling mouth. However, she settled for walking over to Sherry, taking the little girl by the hand, and leading her away from Ada. The woman in red seemed unaffected by this gesture, instead simply suggesting that they get moving before more spiders showed up, and as much as the young woman wanted another excuse to scold her… this was a good idea.

Continuing to trudge their way down the watery passage, it seemed like a miracle when they came upon a metal staircase a few minutes later, allowing their feet to have a break from the water. Sherry slipped on the algae covered metal, but thankfully Claire was still holding her hand, so nobody fell, and soon they reached an old door at the top. The young woman had Sherry move behind her as all of them readied their weapons, and when Leon pushed the door open, they were brought face to face with… _nothing_.

The corridor before them was made of concrete, floor walls and ceiling, but there was more light than there had been in the wet passage, allowing the group to see that at least there were no more of those giant spiders around. There was, however, a _very_ sturdy looking metal door up ahead… a door that was both locked, _and_ had a large keyhole. It was obvious that this was the door that Ben had mentioned before, so Leon inserted the key, and half a turn later there was a loud _click_ as the lock popped open.

Beyond the door was some kind of maintenance room; an open concept with deactivated monitoring equipment, possibly for checking the quality of the water. The water, however, flowed in a wide river deep down below in a depression that cut the room in half like a canyon, and the only way to the other side was via a dangerous looking walkway. There were guardrails, and the metal grating _looked_ sturdy enough.

"Okay, nice and easy now." Leon said as they started to cross. "Everyone keep their eyes open."

The four of them had weapons raised while slowly crossing the platform bridge, and they were just about halfway there, when they stopped as a noise came from above, causing Claire to look up just in time to see something large drop down from seemingly nowhere. It landed hard enough to shake the bridge, growling in what almost sounded like agony as it grabbed onto the guardrail, and effortlessly ripped out an entire segment… which it now held up as if it were a club.

The young woman recognized the monster from Irons' workshop even before the skin plates opened to reveal the large yellow eye in its arm, and as frightening as it was to see this monster again, the good news was that they had it surrounded. With Leon and Ada on the far side, and Claire still more toward the way they came, it should have been easy to overwhelm a single creature, no matter how strong. So as quickly as she could, she raised her shotgun and was about to fire, when the monster swung the guardrail section.

Even though the metal weapon only grazed her head, it was enough to make the young woman see stars as she spun around. Her mind was only just aware of the shotgun flying out of her hands at some point, and then she maybe… fell into Sherry? Her ears were ringing from the blow, and her vision was tilting to the side… or maybe _she_ was tilting to the side? Struggling to right herself, Claire looked back up at the creature, hearing muffled gunshots as it swung the guardrail again.

"Claire!" Leon called, shooting the monster with his pistol in an effort to distract it, but failing.

This was a blow that would have surely killed her, if the little girl hadn't grabbed her by the back of her belt and pulled her backwards. The young woman felt the wind from the attack as she and Sherry fell backwards against the guardrail… only there _was_ no guardrail. In the little girl's effort to save her, but she and the young woman found themselves tumbling from the bridge, and seeing the fight against the eye-monster getting further away until the only sound was a loud _splash_.

Still dizzy from the blow to her head, Claire coughed and struggled for breath as she was carried off by the powerful current of the river; flipping and spinning around for who even _knew_ how long before it all came to a stop. Closing her eyes for a moment in order to rest, the young woman suddenly coughed and gagged, opening them again to see that she was underwater… or at least her _face_ was.

Not sure about which direction was up, Claire flailed around for a moment before touching bottom with her knees and managing to sit up. The first thing she did was vomit up a bunch of water, before coughing and leaning against a convenient wall, and she had just managed to drag herself up onto a solid, dry platform, when the dizziness returned with a vengeance.

"Leon!" She called weakly, after collapsing on her face. "Sherry! Sherry, where are you?!"

Her vision was starting to clear up a bit, although the young woman's head was pounding like a jackhammer, and this allowed her to see that the little girl was nowhere in sight. Starting to panic as she looked around, Claire saw that although she had been pushed off into a side passage, the main part of the flowing river still carried on… and Sherry might have been carried off with it. If so then she had to find her; reaching for a weapon but not finding any, and then trying for the radio… only to find that she had lost it as well.

There was another guardrail on the wall she had pulled herself over, so Claire grabbed onto it in order to pull herself into a sitting position, and she had just succeeded, when she heard a sound that nearly stopped her heart. It was the distinct roar of a monster with dual-voices, and the young woman found herself unable to move when she saw the eye-monster slowly trudging its way toward her through the shallow water.

" _Sherry_!" It roared, echoing both voices down the tunnel.

It had lost its weapon, and was riddled with bullet holes, probably a result of the fight with Leon and Ada… but those holes were starting to heal up on their own, and this time when the yellow eye on its arm opened… it was focused completely on her. She wanted to run, or at least scoot away, but instead found herself so terrified that she was unable to move…. Even as the monster closed in.

"No!" She whimpered, tears starting to flow as it got closer. "No, don't! Please, don't!"

Closing her eyes tightly, and wishing with all of her heart that Leon would show up to save her… the next thing she heard was an explosion. Not a big one, but one that was followed by an agonized roar of the monster, prompting the young woman to open her eyes just in time to see the creature be shot… by a man holding a very large rifle. When the weapon fired, it struck the monster with a large shell, that released a burst of green gas on contact, which seemed to have an effect; making the creature groan as it took a few steps backwards.

Her savior; a stocky man wearing what looked like a gas mask, along with a black helmet, and full riot armor, moved to load another shell into his weapon, when another man, a taller one in identical armor, minus the helmet, stepped forward with an even stranger looking weapon. Whereas the first one was some kind of gas grenade launcher, _this_ rifle launched out some kind of arched electrical bolt that electrified the monster as well as the surrounding water, making it scream while stumbling back far enough to be grabbed by the current of the main river.

"You think we got it this time?" The taller man asked, watching as the stunned creature was washed away. "Hey… what do you wanna do about _her_?"

"We only need to hold the creature off long enough to secure the package." The stocky one replied. "And as for the girl… let's not take any chances."

Claire was about to ask them what they meant, but was interrupted when the shorter one suddenly struck her in the forehead with the stock of his rifle… making the young woman wonder how many times she was going to be knocked out today… as everything went dark around her.


	25. Chapter 25 Water Treatment Plant

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty Five: Water Treatment Plant**

"Claire!" Leon called, watching both her and Sherry fall toward the water below the platform bridge. "You son of a bitch, I'll kill you!"

Knowing that he only had a few bullets left in the precious Desert Eagle, and that it would be needed if the giant ever caught up with them again, the young man decided to use it, since all he and Ada's pistols were doing was pissing the monster off between the swings it took at them with the guardrail. His reflexes were a bit faster than Claire's had been, so he ducked down underneath the next swing, before taking out the Desert Eagle and firing.

 _BOOM!_ The monster's dual voices roared as the high caliber bullet slammed into the more human looking side of its head, causing it to drop the guardrail as it reeled backwards. The monster fell backwards onto the intact part of the guardrail… and broke right through it, and the damn thing would have fallen down into the darkness, if it hadn't grabbed onto the edge of the platform with its human arm.

"Finish it off, Leon!" Ada exclaimed, reloading her pistol. "Hit it with your _big_ gun again!"

It was a tempting prospect, but those last couple bullets were too precious to waste on this thing, and he had already seen how effective the 9mm was… so he slowly moved toward where the monster was hanging, before bending down and picking up the piece of guardrail. The metal bar was a bit heavier than it looked, but that just meant that it would hit harder, and this was Leon's plan when he stood over it.

"You hurt Claire and Sherry." The young man growled angrily, raising the bar above his head. "So now it's _your_ turn to feel some pain."

He didn't know if the monster could understand his words, and he didn't care; Leon's only thoughts being of not being able to protect Claire and Sherry, as he brought the bar down on its human hand as hard as he could. There was a loud _clang_ from the metal, mixed in with a muffled _snap_ when the creature's fingers broke, and then a roar of its dual-voices when the monster fell. A moment later the current of the water below washed it away, leaving the young man to just stand there… dropping the guard rail as he fought back some tears.

"Leon, there was nothing you could do." Ada said, walking up behind him. "But if it makes you feel any better, they're problems are over now."

"You don't know if they're dead, Ada." The young man hissed, turning back to face her. "We have to find a way down there… maybe there's a service ladder, or maybe we can find a map of where the water…

 _Thump-thump-thump_ … the familiar sound of rhythmic and _very_ heavy footsteps reached his ears, interrupting Leon's thoughts, making him momentarily forget all about Claire and Sherry as they got louder… and closer. Now unable to move, and too scared to even take a breath in case it revealed his and Ada's position… to the green coat-wearing giant that appeared in the doorway a couple seconds later.

"What is this, a _tag-team_?" His mind barely registered when Ada spoke. "Leon… Leon, we need to get out of her. Leon!"

Finally snapping out of it when the woman in red struck him in the side of the head with her pistol, the young man realized that she was right, and thankfully there was another door right behind them. Ada fired a couple shots into its legs, most likely in an attempt to slow it down, but there was no effect, so the two of them ran for it. The door behind them was metal, and sturdy enough to be more of a blast hatch than a sewer access door, and this meant that it took both of them working together to pull it open.

 _Screech!_ The rusted and seldom used hinges were stubborn, making the hatch even more difficult to open, and causing Leon's heart to beat faster when he felt the platform bridge start to shake from the giant's first step onto it. Luckily they only needed to open it enough to squeeze through, and both of them were pretty skinny, so they were able to slip through and pull the door shut again before the giant got there.

"Lock that bolt up there." Ada said as she moved an emergency brace onto the lower part of the hatch. "Leon, hurry!"

The woman in red wasn't tall enough to reach it, and even Leon had to stretch a little in order to slide the bar, which was part of some kind of flood-containment system based on the warning label next to it, into place. And they had done this not a moment too soon, since the door shook with what could have only been one of the giant's punches immediately after, making them both jump.

The door held, though. The metal was dented toward them slightly, and tiny pieces were starting to break off of the concrete walls around it, but it _held_. The giant must have realized this as well, since the hits stopped after a couple more tries, and then there was a _thump-thump-thump_ , but this time the footsteps were moving away. Leon held his breath again, worrying that the giant was going to run at the door like a battering ram… but maybe it _couldn't_ run? Since the impact never happened, anyway.

"Do you think it's gone, Ada?" The young man whispered. "Ada?"

There was no response, and Leon's heart skipped a beat when he turned around and she wasn't there… only to feel relieved and irritated at the same time when he saw that she had simply gone ahead down the corridor behind them. He supposed that there was no point in telling her to wait, since the woman in red wasn't going to listen, so the young man followed her, traveling up another short set of stairs, and through a door into a large room that was filled with more deactivated monitoring equipment.

Apparently the Raccoon City Police Department was connected via maintenance access to the nearby water treatment plant, although this office, or meeting room, or whatever it was didn't seem like it had seen much use even before the crisis overtaking the city. However, Ada had stopped moving for the time being, giving him a chance to catch up to her while she rifled through the cabinets and drawers, most likely looking for anything useful.

"You don't see a _map_ or anything, do you?" Leon asked, taking a moment to sit down on one of the desks' chairs after all the excitement. "It shouldn't be too hard to find a way down to where Claire and Sherry fell, and…

"You're wasting your time, _and_ putting us in needless danger, Leon." The woman in red coldly replied, closing the cabinet. "Even _if_ they survived the fall and the water, this place is probably _crawling_ with more creatures like that spider you found, so I wouldn't expect them to last long… even if you _hadn't_ sent that big thing right down after them."

Yes, it was true that he had knocked that eye-monster down into the water right after they had fallen, but if anything, that was even more reason to try and find them before it was too late. Now standing up, and reminding her that she didn't know if they were dead, the young man tried to appeal to her sense of empathy; asking Ada how _she_ would feel if it had been _her_ that had fallen off the platform bridge, and needed to be rescued.

"You may not have noticed this, Leon." The woman in red replied, just as coldly. "But your girlfriend is kind of a wimp, and her getting all _maternal_ over that kid makes her even _more_ of a liability. I, on the other hand, managed to take you prisoner… _twice_ … and if I were on my own, I would fight my way out of it, just like I fought my way through this city _days_ before you came to town."

Finding himself unable to think of anything to say back to this, it was difficult for the young man to believe that a woman as beautiful as Ada could be so heartless. She _had_ to understand on some level what it meant to want to protect someone, since after all, she _was_ in the city to find her boyfriend. So why was it so difficult for her to understand how he felt about Claire? Not that she was his girlfriend or anything, but one would think that the woman in red would pick up on the similarities.

"Tell you what, Leon." Ada said after a long, irritated sigh. "If we _somehow_ manage to find a way down there, we can look for your girlfriend, okay? Now stop pouting like a little girl, and act like a man, because I'm going to need you focused if we are going to make it through this."

"Okay, deal." The young man replied. "But from now on we stick together… it's too dangerous for _any_ of us to be on our own, and I don't want to lose anyone else."

The woman in red sighed again before reluctantly nodding, and then without waiting to see if he had anything else to say, she started toward the other door. Grumbling something at him about _keeping up_ , Leon had to get out of the chair and pick up a light jog in order to catch up to her, and he nearly lost his footing on the downward staircase that was waiting for them on the other side of the door.

All of the pipes, and even some of the walls were leaking, causing the normally non-slip metal grating on the stairs to become a trip-hazard, and the young man didn't feel so bad now, since Ada had to hold onto the guardrail to keep from falling as well. Once at the bottom of the stairs, the area around them went from modern concrete, to the old brick and mortar style construction of city sewers, complete with incandescent hanging light fixtures instead of modern fluorescent ones.

These hanging fixtures caused all of the shadows in the passage to move, giving the illusion of creatures reaching out for them… but it was enough to let them see that there was someone else up ahead of them in the tunnel. It was a woman with dirty blonde hair, wearing what looked like a lab coat, and quickly spinning around after hearing their footsteps… with a pistol in her hand.

 _Bang!_


	26. Chapter 26 Survivors

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty Six: Survivors**

"So, you think this bitch actually knows anything?" A voice asked in the darkness. "Could just be a civilian that got lost."

"This one's no civilian." A second voice replied. "That's how these spies work; they look like helpless little girls, but what _normal girl_ could make it all the way down here? No, she knows something… and she's gonna talk."

Struggling to open her eyes just like what had happened after being captured by Chief Irons, Claire had to blink a bunch of times to see that she had been moved. Now inside of some kind of small storage room, the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling allowed her to see several shelves containing what looked like tools and spare parts to… _something_ … and more importantly, she was able to see the two masked men that had both saved and captured her.

They weren't looking in her direction, so this was probably her only chance to get away, and the young woman tried to get out of the chair that she was seated in… only to discover that there was a thick rope tied around her torso. This not only held her up against the back of the chair, but the rope was pinning her arms down to her sides as well, so she only managed to cause a loud _scrape_ as the chair moved a few inches… a sound that drew her captors' attention.

"Awake already, huh?" The tall one asked as they approached. "You were right about her not being a normal civilian… _gotta_ be another spy."

"A spy?" Claire asked, confused. "Wait, I think there's been some mistake… my name's Claire Redfield… I came here to find my brother, but I don't know anything about any spies or anything like that."

"Sure, _sure_ you don't." The stocky one replied, moving right in front of her. "Just like the other one was up there looking for her _boyfriend_ , right? Well, then introductions are in order… I'm _Hunk_ , and this is my partner, _Tofu_ … ask him about his name… go on… _ask_."

Frightened by the urgency in the stocky one's voice, the young woman looked at the tall one and started to ask him about how he got his odd name, but she had only gotten out half her question when he suddenly used his foot to tip her chair over backwards. Letting out a surprised yelp as she fell, bumping her head on the concrete floor, Claire looked up just in time to see the two of them do a high-five, before the one called Hunk came over and knelt down next to her.

"Yeah, he's kind of sensitive about his name." The stocky one explained, taking out his pistol, causing Claire's eyes to widen. "Okay, back to business… now we came down here to get the same thing you did, but thing is, we can't have any rival agencies getting their hands on the _G_ , so… who do you work for? _HCF_? _Tricell_? The Government?"

"I don't work for anyone." The young woman replied nervously. "I'm… unemployed, actually… but please, you _have_ to let me go. I have to find Sherry… she's just a little girl, and she out there all alone, and she's probably scared to death, and she _needs_ me."

"I thought she was looking for her _brother_." Tofu commented, tilting his had slightly. "Heh, dumbass can't even keep her story straight… _must_ be US Government."

Realizing that these strange, and heavily armed men rally did think that she was some kind of a spy, Claire tried to tell them the whole story, but this only seemed to make things worse. No matter what she said, they found some kind of _plot-hole_ in her story, or simply weren't satisfied when she couldn't explain the parts that she didn't really understand. Eventually the one called Tofu declared that he was sick of her shit, and went over to one of the storeroom's shelves, returning a moment later with a roll of duct tape.

"Shut the hell up, bitch." He said, changing places with Hunk, and putting a piece of the tape over her mouth. "You had your chance to cooperate, so instead of just killing you quick, we're gonna take you with us to a little place called _Rockfort_. Oh, you're gonna _love it_ there; spending the rest of your life as a guinea pig for…

Tofu continued talking, but the young woman's attention was suddenly diverted when she heard a familiar deep breathing sound… followed by the appearance of another one of those tongue-creatures as it slowly crawled along the ceiling like a lizard. Screaming into the duct tape as hard and urgently as she could, the taller man must've assumed she was scared of what he was saying, because he started laughing… until the tongue creature dropped down from the ceiling.

Now the taller man's words became a startled scream, jumping to his feet and starting to spin around in an attempt to throw off the creature, dropping his electric rifle in the process. Meanwhile, the creature's claws tore into his sides, ignoring the armor he was wearing almost completely, but then Hunk aimed his grenade launcher, and everything stopped after he pulled the trigger.

The shell struck his partner in the chest, causing a small explosion of green gas that made the tongue-creature shriek as they were both thrown backwards into the storage shelves, knocking them over like dominoes in the process. The monster, which was now pinned underneath Tofu, stopped moving almost immediately, but the masked man was still alive, managing to reach an arm out for his partner, in spite of how much blood was pooling around him from his wounds.

The young woman expected Hunk to rush over and help his partner, but instead the stocky man simply took out his pistol, and put a bullet right through the headpiece of Tofu's mask with a loud _bang_ , making Tofu collapse. Now the storeroom was eerily quiet again, and since Claire was still tied up and gagged, there wasn't much she could do about, well… anything that was happening.

"God damn it, Tofu." Hunk said with a disappointed tone, holstering his pistol. "I told you to be more careful… you know what, fuck all this. I've got the G sample, so I'm gonna get outta here, and _you_ … you can stay there until you _starve_ to death for all I care."

With that, the masked man was gone, leaving through the only door that the young woman could see, and doing something that sounded like barring it from the other side before his sloshing footsteps could be heard moving away. Now she was alone, and the good news was that it felt like she could maybe free herself if she shimmied the ropes up over her chest and shoulders… but the bad news was that the creature pinned underneath Tofu's body was starting to move.

Remembering that these creatures hunted by sound and couldn't actually see her, Claire tried not to shake too much or make any kind of noises, no matter how scared she was. Acting as if it were groggy from the effects of whatever Hunk shot it with, the tongue-creature seemed to struggle with getting out from under Tofu's body, giving the young woman a little more time. Again, finding herself thankful that her breasts weren't bigger as she squirmed to move the rope over them, the creature seemed to be matching pace with her; sliding out from under Tofu at the same time that she was getting the rope over her head.

Now the tongue-creature was turning around, as if it were listening for the other prey that it _knew_ was there… and that was when the young woman remembered the electric rifle that was now lying right next to her. The monster started to growl as she silently reached for it, and then its elongated tongue shot outward, missing her face by mere inches, and putting a sizable dent in the concrete wall behind her.

It was unlikely that the creature would miss again, so Claire took a chance, diving for the weapon. She did kind of a roll right over it, grabbing and aiming the electric rifle at the same time that the tongue-creature leapt for her with claws outstretched… and then she pulled the trigger. This must have been some kind of high-tech experimental weapon, because when it fired, it unleased what looked like a miniature bolt of lightning that not only stopped the creature in mid-air, but continued to electrocute it for a few seconds after it fell.

By the time that the crackling energy stopped flowing up and down its body, the tongue-creature was not only motionless, but its exposed muscle tissue was charred black, and there was blood seeping out of it through newly opened wounds. She had won… the creature was dead, and the last of her captors had simply vanished… leaving her to cry out in agony after ripping the duct tape off her mouth a little too quickly.

"Ow, shouldn't have done that." She scolded herself, gently rubbing her lips. "Shouldn't have done that."

Okay, now that she was free, and momentarily out of danger, the first thing she needed to do was find Sherry… no, wait… the first thing she needed to do was get the pistol from Tofu, regardless of how wrong it felt to steal from the dead. On top of the electric rifle, the masked man had a pistol just like Hunk's, with a couple spare magazines, which the young woman took without hesitation. And now, before she could find Sherry… she had to find a way out of the storage room.

As Claire expected, the door was now barred from the other side, and she seemed to be trapped there… until discovering the ladder that was built into the side of the wall. It was her only option, so she climbed all the way up to a small hatch, pushing it open so that she could crawl out into some kind of monitoring or conference room. There was deactivated monitoring equipment along the walls, and a large table in the center, leaving little else there to…

 _Bang!_

The sudden unmistakable sound of a gunshot rang out an instant later, causing Claire to reflexively turn toward where it came from… to see that the door into the next area had been partially left open. Hunk had gone the opposite way, so the young woman was filled with hope that she could catch up to the others, so she ran through the door, only to slow down after nearly falling down the stairs that waited to greet her.

Like in the tunnel where the river had dropped her, the concrete architecture gave way to a much older brick and mortar style. Slowing down since the swinging light fixtures that hung from the ceiling weren't as efficient as the fluorescent ones upstairs, but even with the dimmer light and moving shadows, Claire was able to see that she wasn't alone in the tunnel… there was a man up ahead… sitting up against the wall, and holding his shoulder as what looked like blood flowed over his hand.

"Leon!" The young woman exclaimed as she ran toward him.


	27. Chapter 27 Annette

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty Seven: Annette**

 _Bang!_

Without any hesitation, the blonde woman pulled the trigger of his pistol, and as much as she hated to admit it, Ada was caught completely off guard. However, instead of feeling the intense pressure of a gunshot, followed by an incomparable burning sensation at the part of her body that was hit… the woman in red found herself being shoved out of the way… although there was still an outcry of agony.

As Ada fell sideways into the wall, and the blonde woman vanished through the next door, Leon stumbled backwards; his left hand shooting up to cover the spot on his right side where there was a small red stain developing on his shirt. The young man groaned in pain, managing to regain his balance for a second, only to sink down to his knees, doubling over as the red stain grew larger. He tried to stand up again, but only resulted in another groan while he ended up sitting against the wall.

"What the _hell_ is wrong with you?!" Ada scolded, feeling more emotion flaring up than she wanted to admit. "Why would you… God _damn_ it, Leon!"

Yes, he had saved her life, and yes, she was grateful… however, that woman… the one who had just shot Leon… the woman in red needed to talk to her. The good news for Leon as that there was an exit wound on his back that was staining the wall behind him, meaning that since the bullet was a _through-and-through_ hit, he probably wasn't going to die. The bad news, though, was that if Ada stayed there to help him, then the blonde woman was likely to get away… and that would not help her purpose for being in this city.

Making her decision, but not before taking another hesitant look down at Leon, the woman in red took off after the assailant. Kicking open the door, and keeping her weapon raised just in case the blonde woman was waiting for her, she was instead greeted by the sound of flowing water… and the sloshing footsteps of someone running. The passageway quickly became a junction that was flooded just as much as the tunnel where the spider had been encountered, and Ada peeked around the next corner just in time to see the blonde woman vanishing into another tunnel after climbing to the top of a ladder that was bolted onto the stone wall.

Not bothering to check, or even caring what was down the other passageway of the junction, the woman in red continued the chase, feeling slightly annoyed at having her shoes soaked for the second time that night, as she sloshed her way over to the ladder. Turns out that this ladder was a maintenance access for some kind of exhaust shaft, marked by the large metal rotors that were at each end of the tunnel, and thankfully they weren't moving, allowing Ada to climb over the blades and continue the pursuit.

There were a few insects in the exhaust shaft, but she was tough enough to not be bothered by such things as they were neatly crushed underneath her shoes, and after climbing over the rotors at the other end, she found herself climbing down another bolted ladder… into some kind of monitoring station. From what she could see, this place was _huge_ , with multiple levels, all kinds of equipment that… had seen better days… and a couple catwalks that crossed over a massive water holding tank below.

However, there was no sign of the blonde woman, at least of what she could see after reaching the bottom of the ladder. Of course, the only place that Ada had not been able to check was directly behind her, and judging by the soft _click_ of a hammer being pulled back… along with the familiar feel of a gun barrel touching the back of her head… well, the good news was that the blonde woman _hadn't_ gotten away after all.

"Don't move." A stern, yet steady voice ordered. "Drop that pistol, and then keep both hands on the ladder."

At the time, there was nothing that the woman in red could have done to get herself out of this situation but do as the blonde woman said, and for just a moment she wished that Leon had been there to either sneak up on this person from behind, distract her… hell, or even take _another_ bullet if the need arose. Still, for some reason Ada found herself feeling bad about that last option, and maybe even slightly guilty since he had already taken one for her.

"That's better." The blonde woman continued after the pistol fell to the floor. "Now you've got about ten seconds to tell me who you are, and what the hell you're doing in this facility. Oh, and just so you know… I'll _kill_ you if I don't like the answer."

"I'm Ada… Ada Wong." She replied, trying to remain calm, herself. "And I'm only down here because I'm trying to survive what's happening up in the city, just like anyone else would."

Well, the blonde woman hadn't shot her yet, so that was nice… and it also gave Ada more time to figure out how she was going to get out of this. However, something now seemed to cause distraction… no, wait, it was concentration, and the difference between these two similar emotions was that the woman in red would probably be killed if she moved now. And besides, she wanted to know why her name made this woman feel that way.

" _Now_ I remember." The blonde woman finally said. "John, one of the researchers from Chicago… he kept talking about his new girlfriend, Ada, but based on his looks, compared to the description he gave of you… well, none of us thought you were real. Did you know that _idiot_ even used your name as a password once?"

"How do you know John?" Ada asked, unable to keep silent. "Do you work together or something?"

There was an opening right now that the woman in red could've used against her, but if she disabled the blonde woman now, then Ada would never find out what she knew… and apparently it was a lot. According to her, John had been transferred to a remote facility up in the Arklay Mountains to work on a project called the _T-Virus_ , but unfortunately there had been an accident.

"There's no harm in discussing the project, now." She continued. "Since that _very same_ virus is now tearing its way through Raccoon City… and it's not like _you're_ going to tell anyone, since you'll be joining your precious _John_ very soon."

Unfortunately for Ada, this woman was not an idiot; quickly piecing together how _unlikely_ it was for a little science dweeb like John to be able to get with someone who looked like her, let alone prompt the woman in red to mount a solo rescue mission to save him… meaning that the blonde woman could only draw a single conclusion as to both Ada's presence in the city as well as her relationship.

"You're another _spy_ , aren't you?" She accused, pressing the barrel of the gun harder into the back of Ada's head. "What's wrong, didn't _any_ of the extraction team make it out with a _G-Virus_ sample? The sample that you tried to kill my husband over? That's right, I'm _Annette_ Birkin, William's wife, and if you think that I'm going to let _anyone_ steal my husband's work, than you are…

Feeling changes in the pressure of the barrel touching her head, Ada ducked down just in time for a bullet to strike the wall where she had been standing, while the chamber echoed with a loud Bang! Now kicking her leg backwards as soon as she was crouched down, Annette groaned when the woman in red's foot struck her in the stomach, making her fall back against the catwalk's guardrail.

Not wanting to give her a chance to recover, Ada spun around, staying crouched while wrapping her arms around the blonde woman's legs… and then lifting up with all of her strength. The result was Annette Birkin letting out a startled scream as she tumbled over the guardrail, falling toward the water tank below, and the scream being replaced a moment later by the sound of a loud _splash_.

"Asshole." The woman in red commented, looking over the side of the guardrail.

It was too dark down below to see what became of Annette, and now that she had gotten what she needed, it was time to head back to Leon. The young man was an idiot, and clearly lacked good decision making skills, but he had saved her life, so… okay, maybe not going back _that_ way. Looking back up at the exhaust shaft, Ada was able to see that at some point during her conversation with Annette, the rotors had begun to spin, and there was no obvious way to stop them again.

"Great." She grumbled to herself.

There had to be another way out of this facility, since the design would be ignorant if the exhaust shaft was the only exit, so the woman in red followed the catwalk to the end, passing the outer wall of the water tank below, and arriving in an area that certainly had its own distinct smell. In fact, this new place smelled like garbage and sewage water, and after breathing through only her mouth, in order to make the climb down another bolted ladder that led into an even smellier area… she discovered why.

Whereas the water tank below where she had met the blonde woman had been clean with the light scent of chemicals in the air, this place was a literal dump. Aside from a small platform at the bottom of the ladder where she was now standing, the chamber she was now in was partially flooded with nasty sewage water, and there were large piles of garbage everywhere, as if this place was some kind of intake filter to catch solid objects before the water coming in could start being treated.

Honestly, there was no other way out, besides a very large metal shutter of some kind across the way, and as much as she hated to do it, Ada was about to start wading through, when her eyes caught something else… something that didn't belong there. It was a person, wait… no, it was a little girl… yes, there was a little girl lying face down on one of the garbage piles, and… and she looked like that little brat who had been hanging out with Leon's girlfriend.

Of course, there was no time to either rescue or abandon the girl, since at that moment something else caught Ada's eye. This time it came from below the water's surface, where something else was present…. something _big_ … and something that was now starting to move toward her as she readied her pistol.


	28. Chapter 28 Little Girl Lost

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty Eight: Little Girl Lost**

Having reacted mostly out of instinct as she grabbed the back of Claire's belt and pulled her backwards so that the young woman would avoid taking another hit from the eye-monster's improvised weapon, Sherry Birkin was happy that her plan worked… although shocked to find that there was no guardrail waiting to catch them. So instead of simply backing away while the fight continued, the little girl found herself tumbling from the bridge, with Claire following close behind.

 _Splash!_ Suddenly the water was all she could see and hear; the fast moving current of the water treatment plant's homemade river flipping and spinning her around as it carried the little girl away from where Leon and Ada were still fighting. Sherry hadn't quite managed to hold her breath before going under, so it was a struggle for her to get back to the surface, and once she did, the little girl had no idea where she was.

"Claire!" She called in between coughing and gasping for breath. "Claire, where are you?!"

Even with all of the swimming lessons that her mother had forced her to take every summer… which she was now _intensely_ grateful for… the current was so strong that it took all of her strength just to keep from being pulled under again, and even with the service lights that were mounted on both sides of the stone tunnel that she was being carried through, Sherry had completely lost track of Claire.

Suddenly her foot touched something solid, and the little girl realized that she had been pushed over to the wall just in time to grab onto the edge of a walkway before she would have been swept away further. Still coughing as she reached to grab the guardrail with her other hand, it was like the river was trying to keep hold of her as well, and Sherry would have lost this fight if she hadn't been able to swing her leg up over the edge.

" _Sherry_!" Claire's voice echoed down the tunnel while she finished pulling herself up onto solid ground. " _Sherry_! _Where are you_?!"

Wanting to immediately call back, the little girl was so out of breath that she couldn't answer right away. However, the sound was coming from just a little further back down the tunnel, so maybe she could find a way to get back there on her own. Wiping the water out of her eyes, Sherry noticed that the walkway appeared to follow the edge of the river, so all she had to do was run back over to…

" _Sherry_!" The dual-voices of that eye-monster called, making her freeze in place.

Now too frightened to move, the little girl remained crouched down next to the guardrail, scared even more still when she heard Claire crying out in terror. This might have been enough to snap Sherry out of it, if she hadn't heard a kind of commotion, followed by gunfire a moment later. This commotion ended with the eye monster roaring as it stumbled into the water, and the little girl was able to see this because the strange blue energy that was flowing up and down its body was illuminating the area… just a short way upstream from where she was.

The electricity, or whatever it was, stopped a second later as the eye-monster was carried off by the river, and Sherry was starting to think she was safe… until it's enlarged red arm shot out to grab onto the guardrail right next to her. Still frozen in place, the little girl watched as the arm plates opened, allowing the large yellow eye to focus in on her… and she was so close to it that she was able to see her own reflection in the pupil before its plates closed again.

The monster roared as it stood up, finally breaking the paralysis that had overtaken the little girl, and allowing her to run away. However, having seen how fast it could run before, she didn't know where she was supposed to go. Looking around desperately for a hiding place, or a way out while the eye-monster climbed over the guardrail, Sherry's eyes fell onto a small hole at the bottom of the wall that looked like some kind of ventilation shaft.

" _Sherry_!" The dual-voices called again.

It was big enough for her to pass through, and the vent cover was already hanging off, so it didn't take much for her to get the duct open. The _best_ part about this was that the hole was _far_ too small for an adult, let alone a massive eye-monster, so crawling inside and scrambling to get beyond the thing's reach, the little girl was able to breathe a sigh of relief upon hearing the monster roar in what sounded like frustration.

Hearing it clawing at the duct and reaching into the hole in an attempt to reach her, the little girl kept going, moving further into the duct even after the noises from the monster stopped. The small passage was dark, except for tiny vents that allowed her to see into what looked like little offices or storerooms every so often, but unlike where she had gone inside, these vent covers were secured. Well, not wanting to go backwards, the little girl simply kept going, stopping only when she got to a vent that was above a storeroom where she could see some people moving around.

Sherry's first instinct was to call for help, but she stopped before making a single sound, once she was able to get a better look at what was going on. There were two men, armed, and wearing scary looking black armor and masks… however, the part that really caught the little girl's attention was when she saw that they had Claire tied up. The young woman was sitting on a chair with ropes around her arms and chest, and Sherry couldn't hear what they were saying, but suddenly one of the men kicked over the chair.

Wondering why everyone they met except for Leon wanted to hurt Claire, the little girl was trying to think of some way she could help, when she froze again… feeling a knot form in her stomach as she heard a deep, rasping breath. Thankfully it came from outside the vent… although the little girl almost threw up when the tongue-creature crawled right over the cover, only inches from her face… and then it leapt down.

That was it, she had to help Claire… but how? The vent covers were too sturdy to break, not that there was any room to kick them even if they weren't, so Sherry scrambled forward, crawling as quickly as she could, in the hopes of finding another way out so that she could get back around to where Claire was. Unfortunately, with as long as this duct was, the hope of finding a way back around… or even a way out… was growing dim.

Making her way around the next corner, the little girl gasped as she saw light coming from up ahead, and not from a side vent. Yes, as she crawled forward, there was definitely a way out, so Sherry crawled even faster, reaching the opening… and tumbling out of the vent after realizing that there was nothing outside of it to grab onto. Thankfully, the floor of this small room was only a couple feet down, but falling onto metal grating was never a pleasant experience.

Landing on her side, and then rubbing her now sore elbow, she sat up to see that the small area around her was filled with piles of garbage. There was also a steady stream of water falling onto the center of the grating, probably why the part she had landed on was cleared off… but then she followed the water down with her eyes, looking through the grating… to see that she was high above a large, open chamber… and it was a _long_ way down.

Suddenly feeling weak in the knees, she very slowly, and carefully tried to stand up, considering the possibility of getting back into the duct… when the floor vanished from underneath her. Barely hearing a sharp electronic _beep_ , the metal grating swung open, dropping all of the piles of garbage down into the large chamber below, and Sherry screamed as she fell right along with it.

Falling took longer than she had imagined it would, maybe because the feeling of her stomach going up into her throat was making it feel that way, and the world around her continued to spin around, until it all suddenly stopped. The piles of garbage and sewage water probably saved her life as she crashed into one of the tallest ones, and the force of her impact sent bags and other refuse raining down all over the shallow water that filled this area.

Even though she had been saved from death, the little girl rolled and tumbled down what was left of the trash pile, finding herself underwater once again, but at least _this_ time it was shallow enough for her to reach the bottom. Feeling the concrete floor with her hands and knees, Sherry stood up, finding that it was actually only about as deep as it had been in that tunnel they had used to escape the police station.

She could breathe, and move… and that was great… but now she had absolutely no idea where she was… or more importantly, how she could _ever_ get back to that storeroom in time to save Claire. So she looked around the room, hoping to find a way out, and then turning around just in time to nearly walk right into someone who was standing right behind her… someone who was really tall… and had a huge red arm.

" _Sherry_." The eye-monster said, looking down at her.

Unable to move, speak, or even breathe as she looked up at the monster, and getting a good look at its face for the first time, it was like something out of a nightmare. No, worse than a nightmare, since the left half of this abomination… the half that still looked like it had once been human… looked just like her _father_. His face was twisted into an expression of constant pain and rage, with the redness from his right half looking like it was starting to spread… and then the arm plates opened again, allowing that horrible eye to focus in on her once again.

"CLAIRE!" She screamed as it reached for her.


	29. Chapter 29 The G Virus

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Twenty Nine: The G Virus**

"Leon!" A concerned voice, almost yelling, exclaimed as rapid footsteps approached. "Leon, oh my God, are you all right?!"

He had always known that police officers faced danger on a daily basis, and then there was the whole 'life on the line for justice' speech that had been given at the Academy over and over again, and one would _think_ all this would prepare him for the possibility of getting shot. Truth is, it didn't. Nothing in his life had come even _close_ to the pain that now wracked his chest, and moving from the floor up to a seated position against the wall was as far as he had gotten sense.

That woman, she had just… shot him. Well, to be fair, she had been _aiming_ for Ada, but in a sudden bout of selflessness that even _Leon_ had not expected himself to do, the woman in red had not taken the bullet… he had. And then Ada had just left him there; barely hesitating during the choice between helping him, and going after… whoever in the hell that blonde woman was. One would think that if someone just saved your life, you would want to help them out in return… but she had abandoned him.

At first glance, Ada Wong seemed like the perfect woman; beautiful, intelligent, strong, independent… but underneath it all, demonstrated again and again by her actions, she was _cold_. So cold, and uncaring about others, that it was actually hard to imagine how that _John_ guy managed to have a relationship with her. So was it some kind of defense mechanism? Had she once been caring, but after being hurt so many times she just pushed everyone away?

Whatever the reason was, it didn't change the fact that she had abandoned him when he needed her most, and now Leon was just sitting there, in so much pain that even using his hand to keep pressure on the bullet wound was almost unbearable, and now he heard a door opening. It wasn't Ada returning, since _that_ door didn't move, and now he hard footsteps getting closer… not that he could have moved enough to defend himself if it was a zombie, or God forbid it was that giant again.

Fortunately it was neither… after hearing the voice, and forcing his eyes to open just as she knelt down in front of him, it was hard to describe how relieved that he was to see Claire. Not only had he been worried sick about her and Sherry since they had fallen off the bridge, but because the young woman was so kind and considerate; immediately asking if he was all right, and checking his wound… the complete opposite of the woman in red.

"She shot me." He groaned. "That woman… Ada went after her."

"Just try to relax, Leon, okay?" Claire replied as she finished looking at him. "It looks like the bullet went out your back, and I know it hurts, but… my brother says it's actually better when the bullet's not stuck inside. We need to find a first-aid kit or something to treat you with, though. Can you move?"

The young man's legs felt fine, but he wasn't able to get up on his own, so after putting his arm around her shoulders, and some pretty unmanly cries of agony later, he was on his feet. The pain was making Leon a little dizzy, though, meaning that he still had to lean heavily on the young woman for them to be able to start moving. As they moved through the door that Ada had gone through, Claire asked him if he had seen Sherry anywhere, but he hadn't… not since the bridge.

"Don't worry, Claire, we'll find her." The young man reassured her. "As soon as I'm patched up, we'll find Sherry… and we'll find Ada… and we'll all get out of this mess together."

"I know we will, Leon." Claire replied, sounding annoyed that Ada was included. "Let's just focus on taking care of you first."

That sounded pretty good to him, especially with how bad it hurt to step down into more shallow water once they reached a two-way junction. Trying the left path first, they quickly hit a dead end, where the only way forward was up a maintenance ladder, where a set of metal rotors was spinning… not that Leon would have been able to climb up at the moment anyway, meaning that they had to back-track, and take the right path.

More water and algae covered stone walls awaited them as they continued onward, but after rounding a corner, and finding themselves inside of a wider passage, there was something different about this place. For one, there were a lot more lights hanging from the ceiling, leading to the possibility that they were approaching a more heavily used area, and there were also some bodies lying on the ground.

Unlike the ones that he had seen on the Raccoon City streets and inside the RPD, these bodies were wearing a black kind of riot armor, although something seemed to have torn right through it as if it were paper. They were armed as well, although both the weapons and their ammo had probably been ruined after so much time underwater, but for some reason Claire seemed to take a special interest in them.

"I've seen some of these men before." The young woman explained as they moved past them. "They said they were looking for something called the _G_ , but… if the rest of them were like the ones _I_ met… maybe its better we find them this way."

Her words seemed a little out of character for her, but since Claire had the same worried, almost scared expression on her face as when Sherry had told him about what happened with Chief Irons, maybe it was better than he didn't ask any further. Of course, he couldn't help wondering about this _G_ thing they were after, but as far as he was concerned, it could be added to the list of things to worry about _after_ he was taken care of.

Beyond the bodies, which upon closer inspection, had been thrown about, and left lying in twisted, unnatural positions… the passage continued on for what looked like a long way… but there was _also_ a set of metal double doors off to the left. This looked like the only option, at least without having to walk further, so the young woman helped him get up the short set of stairs that led to the doors.

"I don't hear anything." Claire said, putting her ear up to the door. "Okay, Leon… here we go."

He tried to help where he could, but truth be told, the young woman was doing most of the work of turning the latch on the door, which thankfully was unlocked. It was odd to think of how many doors were just sitting open in such places, but then again, honestly how many people would be skulking around the lower levels of a water treatment plant on a normal day? The answer was probably _very few_ , so the two of them passed into a large open chamber with multiple levels… just in time to hear someone climbing up a metal ladder.

It was the blonde woman who appeared climbing up from the massive water tank below a moment later… the one who had shot him. Her hair was matted down, and water was dripping off her clothes as if she had decided to take an impromptu swim for some reason. Her breathing was also labored, as if having been through some kind of traumatic event, and only after swinging herself over onto the platform, did she suddenly notice the two of them standing there… and drawing her pistol in the process.

"What the?!" She demanded, pulling the hammer back, and aiming at them. "How did you… just how many of you are down here?!"

"Wait, we don't want any trouble!" Claire quickly answered, putting up her hands, or at least, her free one. "My friend's hurt, we just need a first air kit or something, and then we'll leave, okay?"

"Claire, she's the one who shot me." Leon groaned into her ear. "The one Ada ran after."

Apparently this was not nearly as quiet as the young man intended, nor was it the correct thing to say, since the mention of Ada's name made the blonde woman become more aggressive. Taking a step backwards, and tightening her grip on the pistol… which might or might not fire due to the water still dripping off of it… she accused the woman in red of being an Umbrella spy, just like those _gas mask wearing assholes_ who had come through earlier.

"Ada isn't a spy." Leon argued. "She just came to the city to find her boyfriend."

"And you _believed_ her?" The blonde woman asked. "Sorry, but I have trouble imagining someone like her being in any kind of relationship… that means you are either a liar, or the most _naive_ man in this city… I'm not sure which is worse. I'm Annette Birkin, by the way… you know, the wife of the man your advance team tried to kill. If you came here looking for them, you're too late, because you see… they came here for William's _G-Virus_ … and it ended up getting _them_ instead."

Now almost gloating, Annette relayed to them a suspenseful tale of masked men breaking into her husband, William Birkin's laboratory, attempting to steal the sample of his newly developed _G-Virus_ , which was apparently the successor to something called the _T-Virus_ … which was what was causing all of the people of Raccoon City to turn into zombies. This was all Umbrella's fault, however, at least according to Annette, since her husband was forced to inject himself with one of the remaining samples to save his own life after the thieves shot him.

"The change was almost instant." Annette continued, now becoming more serious. "The G-Virus is capable of rewriting its host DNA at the molecular level, and William tore through their masks and armor like nothing… but there was a price for the power it gave him."

"Wait, you said your last name is _Birkin_?" Claire suddenly interrupted. "Annette, are you Sherry's mother? We got separated when she fell into the river, and now she's out there all by…

Suddenly Annette came forward, swinging her pistol, and catching Claire across the cheek, causing both her and Leon to lose their balance, and fall on their backs as a result. The blonde woman then kicked Leon in the bullet wound as he tried to sit up, making him scream in agony, while Annette grabbed Claire by the front of the vest, pressing the pistol up underneath her chin.

"Oh, so that's your plan, is it?" The blonde woman hissed. "Claim to have my daughter so that I'll give you the sample, is that it? Well, I'll have you know that I sent Sherry to the police station _days_ ago, and…

"The RPD was overrun." Leon groaned, holding his again bleeding wound. "Claire saved your daughter from those monsters, and we have to find her fast, because… one of them keeps calling out to her."

Letting go of Claire, and standing up with an expression on her face as if she had seen a ghost, Annette's eyes were wide, and some of the color had drained from her face. The woman was no longer in control of herself, acting like a totally different person, while babbling something about William being after her. She muttered something about G-Virus creatures implanting embryos, or something like that, especially into similar DNA, whatever that meant… and then the blonde woman was gone… running through the double doors that they had come through.

"That woman's unstable." Claire commented, starting to get up. "Come on, Leon, get up… we have to find Sherry before she does."

The young man wasn't in any condition to argue, so his only reply was another cry of pain while she helped him to his feet, and they were about to go back through those same doors, when a gunshot rang out, stopping them in their tracks. Another shot was fired a second later, and after figuring out that it was coming from below, they turned around to follow it in case Sherry… _or_ Ada was down there.


	30. Chapter 30 Sewer Gator

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty: Sewer Gator**

Navigating down into the lower levels of the water treatment plant when she had no idea where she was going would have already been difficult on its own, even if Claire _hadn't_ been trying to help Leon at the same time. This whole section of the facility was a maze of catwalks, staircases, and ladders, each one more difficult to help the injured young man get past… not that she would have _ever_ considered leaving him behind.

The gunshots continued as they moved forward, although unlike with all of the other things that they had been put against, the noises were not constant. There would be a shot, then several seconds of nothing, and then another one, as if having to drive something off each time it appeared. Of course, nothing they had encountered so far had shown any fear of firearms, aside from those masked survivors that the young woman had met earlier, but there was no returning fire, so it couldn't be more of them.

"Claire, look!" Leon exclaimed, stopping her as they crossed another walkway. "Down there… it's Ada!"

Stopping more out of reflex than concern for the woman in red, Claire took a moment to look over the guardrail, and sure enough there was Ada, standing on a small platform on the far side of what looked like some kind of garbage disposal area. With the young woman's first thought being how appropriate her surroundings were, based on her personality, Claire's thoughts came to a screeching halt when her eyes fell on something across from Ada… a small figure that was lying face down on a small garbage pile.

"Sherry!" Claire called, making Leon groan when she took off moving. "Sherry, hold on, I'm coming to save you!"

"I can't keep up!" The young man groaned, suddenly pushing off from her to lean on the guardrail. "Go… make sure Sherry's okay, and I'll get there as soon as I can."

Leon was so brave to risk being left alone in his condition, even if it _was_ to save the little girl, and as much as Claire wanted to argue with him about staying together this time, she knew that he was doing the right thing. So reassuring him that she would be back to help him again as soon as Sherry was safe, the young woman gave him a kiss on the cheek that probably surprised herself even more than it did to Leon.

Thankfully, the urgency in getting to Sherry allowed Claire to run off before he could see her start to blush, and now it was a lot easier for her to get down to the lower levels. A few more bridges and ladders later, the young woman found herself reaching the concrete floor, and the only way forward was through an open passageway into a long tunnel. There was a kind of control station next to the entrance, and windows in the wall that allowed her to see that the tunnel was _really_ long.

A warning sign was painted above the open entrance, with symbols for what looked like some kind of _fire hazard_ , and as she took the first steps into the tunnel, Claire started to understand why. The floor was a thick, textured rubber like a conveyer belt, and although the walls were solid concrete, there were holes all over the place that looked like empty water jets, like the ones found in swimming pools. Well, nothing had jumped out at her so far, and from above it had looked like the tunnel led right to where Ada and Sherry were trapped, so she continued running.

Once at the end of the tunnel, there was a release lever, that when pulled caused the metal bulkhead to slowly rise upward… allowing a surge of filthy water and garbage to nearly knock her off her feet as it flowed into the tunnel. The nasty smelling sewage water flooded up to her ankles, and probably would have gotten a lot deeper if the tunnel hadn't been so long… but as the water lever in the chamber ahead lowered… she was able to see something that had been hidden until now… something _big_.

"Get out of there!" Ada called, reloading her pistol. "Get out of there before it…

Too late. Suddenly the water near where Ada was standing exploded upward as its massive occupant leapt toward her, and it was only the fact that the young woman slipped while trying to move backwards that stopped her from being grabbed by its powerful jaws. Now on her back in almost foot-deep sewage water, Claire scrambled to do some kind of awkward crab-walk in order to avoid it the next time the monster snapped at her.

As hard as this was to believe, this thing looked like an alligator… well, an alligator that was at least ten times the size of the biggest one she had seen on the Discovery Channel, and now at least she knew what Ada had been shooting at to drive off. The alligator growled as it searched for her, and maybe it was the young woman's small size that helped her evade its sight long enough to stand up, and ready her electronic rifle.

Of course, now that she thought about it, firing that type of weapon at something standing in the water, while she was _also_ standing in the water, was probably not a good idea. So instead, the young woman turned and ran for the other end of the tunnel, a task that was a lot easier when she hadn't been sloshing her way through sewage water. The monster was also a bit faster than she had guessed, and if not for the trouble it was having with the low ceiling, she probably wouldn't have made it as far as she did before tripping.

Catching her foot on the end of the conveyer belt, Claire an instantaneous memory of all the women in horror movies that she used to make fun of for _tripping over nothing_ , and although she had landed beyond the entrance to the tunnel, the alligator was still coming. She was completely out of breath, and there was no time to get up and run, so she was trying to raise the electronic rifle, when an alarm sounded.

A spinning yellow warning light came on as a metal bulkhead identical to the one on the far end came down, blocking the monster's path with absolutely no time to spare, and once the bulkhead was locked down, an intense yellow-white light came from the windows, forcing her to shield her eyes while the alligator roared. In her panic to get away, she had forgotten that all the evidence pointed to the tunnel being a gigantic trash incinerator… and thank _God_ it was.

The process lasted less than a minute before the white-hot flames stopped, and there was a rush of compressed head when the bulkheads opened again… but the alligator was gone… expect for a small amount of something that might have been its ashes. But how had the incinerator come online in the first place? That was when her eyes readjusted to the amount of light, and she was able to see Leon leaning against the control station.

"Are you okay, Claire?" He asked, propping himself up on his good arm.

This time the young woman didn't know what to say… this was like the… she didn't even _know_ how many times he had saved her life since they had both wandered into Raccoon City. Catching her breath as she got to her feet, Claire had a brief moment where she realized that her brother would probably hate this guy, but that moment ended with her really not giving a damn. Right now she didn't care about the situation, nor about the way Leon was always looking at Ada… that _bitch in red_ could eat a dick for all she cared.

"Did you see them?" Leon continued as she walked up to him. "Are Ada and Sherry…

Now it was Leon's turn to be interrupted when Claire leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss, this time on the lips. Well, if Claire had been worried about her _own_ blushing earlier, she no longer had a reason to, since the young man's whole face was now turning about the same color as a ripe tomato. He just stood there, wide-eyed and trying to say something that just came out as random syllables.

A number of possible reactions had crossed Claire's mind when she had spent about a second thinking about kissing him before doing it, but this wasn't one of them. It kind of brought to her mind a memory of the very first boy she had kissed back in Junior High, but… no, couldn't be… it was _ridiculous_ to think that someone as good looking as Leon had never kissed a girl before… so maybe he just needed to be reassured. Moving closer, and pulling him in for another one, Claire was shocked when the young man instead cried out in pain.

"Oh, my God, I'm _so_ sorry!" The young woman exclaimed, moving off of his wound. "Oh no, you're bleeding again, I just… I forgot… I'm sorry, Leon."

"It's okay, Claire." He groaned, putting his good arm over the bullet hole. "It's okay… I'm okay… God, this really hurts."

It was a struggle to get her mind back into focus, after having a brief moment where nothing was trying to kill her, and she actually felt… nice. However, Leon was still injured, Ada was, well… she really didn't care about Ada, but Sherry… quickly promising the young man that she would be right back, Claire took off running down the still slightly heated tunnel, and to the other side, where Ada was trudging her way toward her.

"Hey, wait, Ada, you forgot Sherry." The young woman said, pointing to the little girl. "Can you grab her? She's right over there."

"No, I'm not very good with kids." Ada replied calmly, stepping up into the tunnel. "Playing _mother hen_ seems more like _your_ thing anyway."

For a second Claire was dumbstruck how _anyone_ , especially a _woman_ , would be able to leave a helpless child lying there in the garbage… or _anywhere_ unsafe while they just walked away. The young woman considered confronting her about it, but Sherry was more important, so she sloshed her way across the partially flooded chamber, and turned the little girl over onto her back. She was breathing, and there was a strange kind of oozing substance around her mouth… more of which was coughed up when Sherry started to open her eyes.

"Wha… Claire?" The little girl asked, sleepily. "Claire, where are… ow… my stomach… it hurts."

The poor girl had probably swallowed down some of the sewage water during… however she had gotten into this chamber, so some stomach pain was to be expected, and Claire was just glad that Sherry was still alive. But now they had to get out of this place, before one of those monsters… or _Annette_ found them. The little girl was more or less unharmed, and was walking a lot better than Leon at the moment, so the two of them moved back toward the tunnel, in order to catch up with the others.


	31. Chapter 31 Leaving the Sewers

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty One: Leaving the Sewers**

Having managed to locate a first aid box mounted on the nearby wall, Leon was struggling to somehow bandage himself, which would have been impossible even if he _had_ been able to use both arms, but then Ada came walking out of the tunnel. Shaking her head and making a kind of snorting sound that suggested she was amused by his attempt, the woman in red took the bandage out of his hands.

"No, Leon, the bandage only covers the wound." She explained, rummaging through the kit. "The entry and exits both need to be sutured, but first we need to sterilize everything with alcohol… and boy is this going to hurt."

Sighing with relief over having any kind of help at all, the young man was only paying half-attention as she dipped the needle and suture kits in a small bottle of rubbing alcohol. The other half of his attention was remembering the sudden kiss that Claire Redfield had laid on him, and although this had not been the first time he had kissed a girl, it had been… replaced with an incredible burning sensation that made him cry out in pain.

"Oh, be a man." Ada said, putting the same amount of alcohol on his chest. "You took a _bullet_ pretty well, you figure a little _alcohol sting_ would be a snap."

"You're _welcome_ for that, Ada." He groaned, biting his lip to resist the burning. "And I'm fine, by the way, thanks for…

His words became another outcry when she stuck the needle of the suture into his back, and then there was a lot of lib-biting, and squeezing the arm of the chair that she had set him in, as tightly as he could… at least with his good hand. The good news was that the woman in red seemed to know what she was doing, although there was a cold and merciless efficiency to her work where she didn't even _try_ to make it less painful… as she did with the wound on his chest.

"Okay, _now_ we can put the bandage on." Ada continued, going back to the kit. "Oh, and it looks like you get a little treat… I didn't think they still _put_ morphine inside these things… hope it's not expired."

Starting to protest, there was really no way to stop her from jamming the needle into his hurt arm and… then starting to feel really good even before she was done pushing down the plunger of the syringe. In fact, a few seconds later he didn't feel any pain at all… he was relaxing, which was a nice change of things considering everything that had happened so far, and he was now only dimly aware that Ada had finished doing the bandage.

"It's nice to be able to move my arm again." Leon said, a little slower than usual while moving his arm around. "Now, I'll be able to help against those monsters again."

Yeah, you _might_ want to wait about twenty minutes before any gunplay." The woman replied as Claire and Sherry walked out of the tunnel. "At least for the edge to wear off… you'll know when it starts to hurt again."

Now that the whole group was back together, and there wasn't a threat of immediate death, it was time to plan their next move. So far the plan had been to escape the RPD through the sewers, and that had led them to this place, so… where were they supposed to go now? There was a couple minutes of debate, ending when Claire remembered that there was still the rest of the unexplored tunnel that they had seen before taking the side door into this area.

"Sounds like as good a plan as any." Ada said, starting back toward the ladder to the upper levels. "Help your _boyfriend_ , would you, hon?"

It was still a little hard to think, so it wasn't like Leon was able to defend the young woman from this kind of talk, instead settling for leaning on her… even though it was a _lot_ easier to stand up now. The young man tried to support himself as much as possible, with the cause of his dizziness being more of the morphine than the pain now, and with Claire using her free arm to take Sherry by the hand… it was hard not to smile at her a little.

"Aw, you three look just like a _family_." The woman in red commented as she climbed up the ladder. "A family full of dysfunction and trauma, but a family just the same… good for you, Leon."

"Claire, why is she so mean?" Sherry asked, moving closer to ask quietly.

"Because, Sherry." Claire replied, just as quietly. "She's a _bitch_."

Each moving on their own to get up the ladders, the group moved back across catwalks and platforms, moving back up into the upper levels, to where he and Claire had come in. Thankfully, there were no more giant alligators waiting for them back out in the tunnel, which ended at a short staircase after a few more minutes of sloshing through the water. The layout of the tunnels was changing as well, becoming dry as they moved into a narrow passage where instead of stone and brick, the walls and ceiling were now more like a cave.

The light fixtures were still old fashioned and hanging along the ceiling, and the floor underneath them was a kind of metal grating that was bolted down onto the uneven stone. The morphine was starting to wear off already, giving Leon a slight sting in his chest, but right now he was more concerned with where in the hell they were going. Well, it wasn't like they had much choice in the matter, since there was only one path, but it made him wonder who would carve a path like this into solid stone… and for what purpose.

"What is this place?" Claire asked, her words having a surprising echo.

"It's called a _chokepoint_." Ada hissed in a whisper. "A place where if something attacks you, you're screwed, so keep the noise down in case we aren't alone down here."

The young man really needed to have a conversation with the woman in red about teamwork and trust, but in this instance she _did_ have a point about this narrow passage being the perfect place for an ambush. However, nothing jumped out at them, and after rounding the next corner, the passage opened up into an incredibly large, and dark chamber. The light fixtures just kind of stopped at the beginning of the opening, but there were some very small, different colored blinking lights up ahead… possibly from some kind of machinery?

"Wait here." Leon said, feeling good enough to walk on his own. "I'll see if I can turn some lights on."

"Be careful, Leon." Claire and Sherry said at the same time.

Surprise, surprise, Ada said nothing, aside from gesturing him forward, so into the darkness he went. The metal grating made a _tap-tap-tap_ under his feet, causing brief echoes throughout the room as he made his way up to the blinking lights, which actually did turn out to be some kind of machinery. It was far too dark for him to actually see what he was doing, so the young man moved his hand toward the most prominent blinking red light, and felt around until discovering some kind of large button.

Pressing it before even realizing that he was using enough finger pressure to, the young man gasped and jumped a little when there was a loud click, followed by a series of modern fluorescent light fixtures activating along the ceiling. This allowed him to see that the metal grating stopped a short distance away, leaving a deep, black chasm at the end, and from what he could see… it was too deep and wide to navigate by themselves.

"Way to go, Leon!" Sherry exclaimed, scaring herself with her own echo as the others walked up to him. "But, um… what do we do about that hole?"

Honestly, the young man had no idea, and he was just about to confess this, when his words were stopped by the powering up of another machine. The light fixtures continued to light up across the chasm, revealing both that it was _a lot_ wider than he thought… but also that there was something moving toward them. At first Leon couldn't tell what it was, but then he laughed a little when he realized that it was some kind of wire-mounted _sky-car_ , like the ones used for moving across mountaintops.

"Will that work?" The young man asked, pointing to the sky-car as it came to a stop at the end of the grating.

"It's _perfect_." Claire replied with a smile. "Good work, Leon."

"Awfully _convenient_ to find this down here." Ada added, looking around the chamber. "Still, we should keep moving."

Without waiting for the others, the woman in red began walking toward the sky-car, leaving Leon and the others no choice but to start following… until they were stopped by a familiar sounding roar coming from behind… a roar with _two_ voices. When the four of them turned around in unison, the fact that they already knew what it was didn't stop them from being afraid when the eye-monster came walking out of the tunnel… roaring again after seeing them.

"Run!" Leon yelled, pushing Claire and Sherry forward. "Get in, quick!"

There were no arguments as the four of them piled into the sky-car, the young man was able to see the monster starting to run toward them while he was pulling the door closed. However, Ada was already standing at the controls, and with a simple moving of one lever forward, the sky-car started to move, leaving the sound of the eye-monster's approaching footsteps behind.

"Don't be scared, Sherry." Claire said, hugging the frightened little girl. "We got away… we're safe now."

"Yeah, looks like we were too fast for him." Leon added, trying to reassure her. "In fact, I'd _love_ to see that thing catch up to…

Suddenly the young man's words were stopped when there was a loud _thump_ from above them, causing the sky-car to rock backwards a little. This sound was followed by a loud roar with dual-voices, and even more rocking back and forth of the sky-car as it continued its way across the seemingly endless chasm.

"You were saying?" Ada asked as everyone readied their weapons.


	32. Chapter 32 Sky-Car

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty Two: Sky-Car**

There was a muffled _thump_ , followed by a slight rocking in the sky-car each time the eye-monster could be heard moving around up above, and the far end of the chasm was still a great distance away. The most obvious place for the monster to try and attack them was through the closed hatch, so Claire had Sherry move against the opposite wall, and then stood in front of her as the she, Leon, and Ada prepared to fight it off.

But the attack did not come from the door; instead the ceiling splitting open like a tin can as the monster's red arm punched right through it, passing only inches in front of Claire's face. If it had just been a little closer when the claws swiped through the air, they would have probably cleaved her in half, but instead the arm simply retracted, leaving her standing there wide-eyed as Leon moved up under the hole.

"Sherry, get down!" The young woman exclaimed, pulling the little girl down toward the floor.

 _Bang! Bang!_ His pistol echoed loudly as he fired up at the unseen creature, only to have to dive out of the way as the arm punched another hole in the ceiling, nearly getting him as well. As it had done with her, the claws swiped around looking for him, but instead of retracting right away this time, the skin plates opened so that the large yellow eye could search for them… focusing on Claire just as she was raising the electric rifle.

Both Leon and Ada were already shooting the mutated arm, but it wasn't until it was struck right in the eye with a bolt of electricity, that it retracted again. Like when those masked survivors had shot it back in the sewers, the blue crackling energy traveled up and down its body, causing it to let out a less frightening roar with its dual voices as the sky-car rocked with its movements.

According to Annette Birkin, this monster was the result of her husband, William, infecting himself with something called the G-Virus, and from what Claire had seen of his mutation so far, the blonde woman hadn't been exaggerating about its regenerative qualities. Aiming for the eye in its arm gave them a temporary advantage, but a couple seconds later its roaring dual-voices sounded just a scary as they had before… and it was hard to believe that this was all because of Sherry's parents.

"I'm gonna try to lure it over toward me." Leon said quietly, staying crouched while moving to the car corner of the sky-car. "Then you two let him have it the _second_ the arm comes down."

The young woman didn't like the idea of putting Leon in danger like that, but right now it was the only plan they had… and it wasn't like the woman in red objected, crouching down herself while aiming her own pistol upward. _Bang!_ Sherry was covering her ears while Leon's bullet struck the ceiling, and this gave a new perspective on the eye-monster's strength, being that the bullet was just barely able to break through the metal.

As expected, the sky-car started to rock back and forth as the monster moved around on the roof, but as the three of them prepared to light it up… nothing happened. The moving vehicle had rocked enough for it to have moved into position above Leon, but for some reason the monster just wasn't attacking. Shrugging his shoulders, and preparing to fire another shot at the ceiling in case the monster wasn't sure where to attack, suddenly their plans were interrupted by another roar… as the door was ripped off its hinges.

Tearing the metal hatch away, and then tossing it down into the darkness as if it were nothing, the eye monster was now hanging onto the bottom of the sky-car with its clawed arm, causing Claire to scream when it reached in and grabbed her ankle with its human arm. There was no way to resist when its powerful grip knocked her off her feet, and it was starting to drag her toward it, when the young woman screamed again when Ada stopped this by grabbing onto her hair.

There was no way that someone Ada's size could have resisted the eye-monster's strength for more than a second, but thankfully she had immediately started shooting with her free hand, making it let go of the young woman after one of the bullets caught it in one of the still human looking eyes. It roared again as Leon pulled Claire to safety, the sky-car moving again as the monster changed its grip in order to climb into the vehicle… but by this time the young woman had raised the electric rifle once again.

With a quick flash of electricity, that she was lucky didn't travel through the sky-car's metal and kill them all, the eye-monster was gone; its dual-voices roaring as it fell down into the darkness of the chasm, and the only thing that Claire could think of as she let out a long sigh of relief… was that she hoped the chasm was bottom less. This was doubtful, so her hopes changed to the monster being either killed by the fall or trapped forever, but either way, the rest of the sky-car ride was a peaceful one.

"You… you saved me." Claire said as they approached the end of the track.

"Well, you've been _useful_ so far." The woman in red quickly replied, looking away. "And besides… it would be a _shame_ to lose that gun you're carrying."

With everyone relatively uninjured, the four of them were able to exit the vehicle once it finally stopped at the other end of the chasm, and now they found themselves inside of a chamber that mirrored the other end of this tunnel. So far there was no sign of the eye-monster, and not wanting to wait for it to find a way to catch up to them again, the group made their way over to the only door leaving the tunnel, now finding themselves inside of some kind of control room after passing through.

This one wasn't like the defunct, abandoned facilities they had seen back in the sewers; instead all of the lights were on, and the control panels were lit up as if this equipment had been used recently. There was even a mini-fridge over near the desk, and inside were several bottles of water… which was desperately needed since the last thing Claire had to drink was a diet soda back before finding her way to the STARS Office.

Strange… it had only been a matter of _hours_ since riding into Raccoon City on her motorcycle, searching for her brother… but now that seemed like a lifetime ago… back before zombies were a _real_ thing. The young woman almost laughed thinking about how yesterday the most important things in her life were college parties, and trying to keep her GPA high enough to not get thrown out… but now there was this little girl, sitting there with a bottle of water, and completely dependent on Claire to keep her safe.

But what was going to happen if they somehow made it out of Raccoon City alive? Sherry's parents were not exactly ideal, and if the little girl had any other relatives in the city, well… they were probably gone. So what was the young woman supposed to do? Just keep on taking care of Sherry as if she were her own? Forget about college, and get a normal job, and… be some kind of… _mom_?

Honestly, Claire had never imagined herself actually having children, but… maybe taking care of Sherry wouldn't be so bad… especially once there were no zombies or monsters to deal with. Of course, after all this, and especially with the eye-monster wearing William Birkin's face, the little girl was probably going to be scarred for life… hell, Claire was probably going to walk away from all this with some damage, herself.

Having to close her eyes for a moment in order to drive out the memory of being captured, groped, and nearly sliced open by Chief Irons, the only positive thing about the ordeal was that at least she didn't have a monster that used to be a family member calling her name like poor Sherry did, and…

"Hey, did you all notice something different about that monster this time?" She asked, looking around at the others. "I didn't think about it until just now, but…

"It wasn't calling for me this time." Sherry interrupted, setting down her empty water bottle as her stomach growled loudly. "I think that's a good thing, though."

"Maybe that means it's giving up." Leon suggested, sitting down next to the little girl. "Finally figured out that we'll _never_ let it get you, isn't that right, Claire?"

The young woman nodded, smiling when the young man playfully rubbed the top of Sherry's head, and this made her think of the future again… how taking care of Sherry wouldn't be so bad… especially if Leon was there. Part of her knew that this was ridiculous, and that they hadn't even known each other for twenty four hours yet, but the young woman was falling for him. And why not? He was brave, good looking, kind natured…

"Or maybe it doesn't need you anymore." Ada suggested, ruining the mood while looking over Sherry with almost… _concern_ on her face.

"That sounds good, too." Leon quickly said, seeing the uneasiness on the little girl's face. "But either way, we should probably keep moving."

Now that everyone had finally had a chance to get something decent to drink, it was a lot easier to keep making their way toward… wherever in the hell this path was leading them. So the group exited the control station through a door on the other side of the room, and found themselves outside. A brief hope of freedom from this nightmare entered Claire's mind as she saw the stars and full moon high up above… but then this hope was dashed when she realized that there was a high, impassable wall that enclosed the whole area around them.

Still, it was nice to have some fresh air for a chance, and now their feet made a shuffling sound since the ground beyond the control station was covered with gravel. There were some small light fixtures mounted on the walls, looking more like work lights as they moved forward, but between them and the moon, it was enough to see the dominant feature of this area. It was a train… or at least, the _engine car_ of a train, sitting on a set of railroad tracks that was just big enough for the car to sit on… and went nowhere else.

"Well, this is… odd." Ada commented as they approached.

Yes it was; the car and tracks sat on top of a large octagonal platform that was slightly above, and separated from the gravel, and there was a control panel near the car itself that had control for going up and down. Apparently they were not looking at an escape train, like Claire had hoped… but some kind of elevator? The only place for it to go was down, which meant that this path was taking them back underground… however, there was one small problem.

"The key's missing." Leon commented after looking at the control panel.


	33. Chapter 33 It Follows

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty Three: It Follows**

Clearly, this train engine-car/elevator thing was the only way forward, but without the key to operate the control box, it was pretty much useless. So Leon did a quick search of the surrounding area, as well as inside of the car, and although there was a place for the key to be hung near the front interior, and the hook was even labeled _'Control Key'_ , the key itself was missing.

"Wonderful." The young man grumbled to himself.

Not wanting to come back empty-handed, he continued to look around the interior of the engine car, and although there were no keys, there _was_ something interesting written on a laminated plastic card that he found underneath one of the seats. It was some kind of instruction pamphlet, mentioning some useless warning about restricted Umbrella facilities, but the part he was concerned with was the instructions for recalling the platform if it was left at the bottom of the shaft.

"Good news, everyone." Leon said happily as he came back outside. "There weren't any keys inside, but according to this card I found, there's a service lift around back of the platform that leads down to a maintenance room with another set of controls."

Claire smiled upon hearing that he had discovered the way forward, and that smile alone was enough to fill the young man with renewed confidence that he really could get her… all of them… out of this mess alive. However, the moment was ruined a second later when Sherry groaned in pain, holding her stomach while it rumbled more loudly than Leon thought possible. Being the concerned person that she was, Claire immediately rushed to her side, but apparently this was more than a typical stomach ache.

"My stomach." The little girl groaned, sinking to her knees as tears started to run down her cheek. "Claire… my stomach… it hurts."

"I know… I'm sorry, Sherry." The young woman replied, holding her. "Leon's gonna get this platform working, and then we'll find you something to make you feel better, okay?"

The little girl nodded, starting to cry more as they hugged, and now Claire was looking up at the young man urgently. Reassuring her that everything was going to be all right, and knowing that she was counting on him, Leon immediately set out toward the far end of the platform, and in a surprising move… Ada followed him. At first the young man thought that the woman in red was simply headed for the engine-car to rest or something, but instead she followed him all the way to the almost completely hidden service lift.

"Don't look so surprised, Leon." Ada casually remarked as they stepped onto it. "Normally, I'd let you handle this one, but you've got a nasty habit of trying to be a hero… and you can't bring us the key if you get yourself shot again."

"Well, I'm glad you're here, either way." Leon replied as the lift started down. "If we're all going to get out of this city alive, we have to stay together, and watch each other's backs like a team."

The woman in red shrugged, and by this time the lift had reached its destination, since it only moved a single level below the platform itself, where a metal walkway wrapped around the perimeter of the platform. It was a good thing that there was a sturdy guardrail there, too, because when Leon looked over the edge, he immediately stepped back from the shock of how deep the shaft was. There were plenty of lights, mounted around the walls on each level, but… there was just no bottom to the thing.

"Leon, you know how in the movies, they always say _'don't look down'_?" Ada asked, seemingly unaffected by the bottomless shaft. "Well, this right here, is what they're talking about."

Not that Leon was afraid of heights… he was just trying to be careful… hugging the wall as they made their way around the walkway, to a metal door that was marked _Maintenance_. Once through, the young man sighed with relief since there was no longer a huge drop near them, and the first thing that Leon saw, as they moved through a narrow entryway past a bunch of wall-mounted cables, was a large security camera that was pointed at the door.

"I wonder why that's _here_ , of all places?" The young man asked. "Doesn't really make sense."

"Doesn't matter." Ada replied, keeping her pistol ready as they rounded the corner. "Let's just find the key, or the override controls, and get the hell out of here."

There was really no argument to be made here, so Leon drew his pistol as well, keeping the weapon up as they moved into the actual maintenance office. Like any office, there was a desk and chair, but there was also a large control panel at the back. The machinery was all powered down, including a small monitoring station on the wall adjacent to the control panel. Since Ada had already moved up to the controls, and there was only room for one person, the young man instead turned his attention to the black screen.

"I don't see a key here, Leon." Ada reported, starting to mess with the controls. "But it looks like we can use these controls to override the safety lock… one way trip, through… not that we have a reason to come back here."

Suddenly the control panel lit up, followed by the sound of power flowing through the other machines and wall-mounted cables… including the monitoring station. After a brief flash of the static snow-screen, the monitor focused on the image of the door to the office, and Leon coughed, staring wide-eyed at what he saw. The young man tried to get Ada's attention, but couldn't find the words, until the woman in red turned around… gasping herself, after seeing the green coat-wearing giant slowly stomping its way toward the screen.

Now both of them were staring at the monitor, wide-eyed as the giant got closer, and closer… but then it stopped… looking right at the camera as if it could see them standing there. It then raised its arms above its head, and the monitor went back to static in the middle of bringing them back down. The static screen snapped them both into reality, and Leon and Ada both looked at each other, each hoping that the other had a plan… until the giant slowly came around the corner.

"I'll distract him, Ada." The young man said, taking the Desert Eagle out from behind his back. "You make a break for it."

"Leon, what did I tell you about being a hero?" The woman in red replied, both of them backing up as it approached.

There was no time for argument, since the giant was closing in with a loud _thump-thump-thump_ of its massive feet across the metal floor. So Leon aimed the powerful handgun, and a bullet was sent into its chest with an almost deafening _BOOM!_ Stumbling backwards, and falling down to one knee, this gave Ada the opportunity to run right past the giant before it could start recovering.

"That's right, ugly!" Leon declared as the woman in red got away. "You may be tough, but I've always got _the final word_!"

 _Click…_

There was not a curse word in the young man's vocabulary that was strong enough for his reaction to hearing the Desert Eagle… the weapon that he had been so dependent on since finding it in the RPD's Homicide Division office… was out of bullets. Looking back at the giant, Leon saw that it was just starting to recover, and in a few seconds it would be back on its feet, and then he would be screwed… so the young man did the only thing he could think of… which was also the dumbest thing he could think of.

Tossing the now useless weapon so that it struck the giant in the head, Leon ran right toward it, leaping into the air in an attempt to gracefully dive right over the giant's head, roll across the floor, and then agilely sprint out of the room… at least, that was what he _wanted_ to happen. Unfortunately, the giant was getting up a little faster than he thought, causing Leon's waist to get caught on its huge shoulder.

The good news was that the giant was off balance enough for the young man's added weight to knock it down onto its back, but the bad news was that instead of agilely rolling across the floor, Leon fell flat on his face, well within arm's reach of the giant. Thankfully, he reacted fast enough to do a kind of awkward squirming/rolling/crabwalk in order to avoid those big arms that had so easily killed Ben, and then the crabwalk turned into a drunken stumble as Leon tried to reach the door while the giant got up.

Forgetting all about the horrifying shaft that was below the walkway after running out the door, the young man sprinted back to the lift, where Ada was still waiting, and he had to lean on the guardrail in order to catch his breath as they moved back up to the platform. Once all the way up, Leon took out his pistol and shot the controls so that the giant wouldn't be able to follow them, and then they ran back around to the control box, where Claire could be seen poking her head out the door of the engine car.

"Hurry up, get inside!" The young man yelled, stopping to use the now active controls. "Let's hope this thing moves fast."

After pushing the down button, the row of indicator lights turned green in sequence, before Leon jumped in surprise when a loud factory-whistle rang out in three short bursts. Now the platform started to move; the edges folding up into a kind of safety barriers around the edge of the shaft, and the young man ran to join the others inside as the whole thing started down along the tracks.


	34. Chapter 34 Mutation

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty Four: Mutation**

While Leon and Ada went down the service lift to find the key to startup the platform, Claire felt it would be best to take Sherry inside the engine car, just in case anything happened. However, the pain that the little girl was experiencing only seemed to worsen as the minutes went by, and it tore the young woman apart that she couldn't do anything beyond holding Sherry as more symptoms of… _something_ appeared.

As the two of them sat on one of the benches along the wall, the little girl started to feel warm… like, _fever_ warm, but when beads of sweat started to drip from Sherry's forehead, each one was freezing, like a bucket of nearly frozen water had been poured onto her head. Now she was shivering, and just a couple minutes later the little girl was so soaked from her own profuse sweating, that she looked like she had just gotten out of a swimming pool.

Obviously Claire needed to find a way to keep Sherry warm, so the young woman took off her vest, which was the only thing she had at the time, and put it on the little girl. Their height difference made the vest fit her like a long shirt once it was zipped up. This seemed to help a little, and the young woman gave Sherry a kiss on top of the head just as she stopped shaking, making Claire think that maybe she was getting better… until the young woman realized that the shaking hadn't stopped because of recovery… but because Sherry had passed out.

"Sherry?" Claire asked, shaking her a little. "Sherry?!"

 _BOOM!_ The sudden sound of a gunshot made her gasp, but there were no windows inside the engine car, so she couldn't see what was happening… not that Sherry could be left alone in her current state. Now feeling so helpless that a knot was forming in her stomach, the young woman didn't know how to help the little girl, and was starting to cry herself, when she heard the sound of the service lift returning.

Leon would know what to do… carefully laying Sherry down on the bench, the young woman knew that Leon would be able to help, so she went over to the door and poked her head out, just in time to hear the young man yelling for her to get back inside as he and Ada came running across the platform. He stopped long enough to push a button on the control box outside, resulting with a sharp sounding of some kind of factory whistle, before the platform started to move.

Now with all four of them inside the engine car, the train elevator started down, and this gave Claire a moment to update Leon on Sherry's condition. Aside from trying to keep her warm, and trying to maybe find some medicine down in… _wherever_ this elevator was taking them, he didn't really have a plan after all, and Claire should have expected this, since he was a cop and not a doctor… but it was good to know she wasn't alone in this, just the same.

"I think Sherry might be in more trouble than just a fever." Ada commented, looking down at the little girl. "These symptoms that she has…

Her words were interrupted by a loud kind of crashing sound from up above, as if something had landed on top of the engine car, and as much as Claire needed to hear the rest of what the woman in red had to say, their safety needed to be assured first. So all three of them readied their weapons, trying to move around the interior of the engine car so that they were following the sound of the movements.

Well, apparently they were following them pretty well, since a second later, a small part of the wall was torn open as a large red arm punched through it like it were made of tin foil. To make matters worse, the elongated claws on the end were opened, and there was a small spray of blood when they struck Ada in the torso, throwing her right into Claire, and making them both fall onto the floor.

"Ada!" Leon exclaimed as the clawed arm retracted back through the hole.

The woman in red had been cut pretty badly across the torso, leaving part of her dress in tatters, and allowing her blood to start oozing out. Claire had taken most of the fall, but Ada must've hit her head or something, because now she was passed out just like Sherry, and now the dual voices of the eye-monster could be heard outside. Thankfully, Leon had taken everything he could from that first aid kit back in the water treatment plant and stuffed it into his weapon belt, so treating her wouldn't be a problem… but there was also the monster.

"Take care of Ada." Claire said, gently moving out from under her and laying her down. "I'll handle _this_."

"Hey, hold on a second." Leon argued as she readied her electric rifle. "What do you mean, _you'll handle this_ , that thing is _dangerous_ , Claire!"

But there was no stopping her… after all, that thing was trying to hurt Sherry, and every instinct inside her was telling the young woman to take action. So after giving the young man a quick kiss on the cheek, she got up, leaving him to take care of Sherry and Ada while she boldly walked out the door. With weapon raised, she stepped onto the platform, watching the rings of mounted light fixtures slowly passing as the train elevator continued downward.

Her boldness and instincts, did _not_ , however, stop her from feeling scared when the eye-monster came slowly walking out from around the other side of the engine car. Roaring again as it started toward the young woman, Claire simply aimed and pulled the trigger, making it roar even louder. The electric bolt struck it right in the chest, causing the monster to stumble backwards as the crackling energy traveled up and down its body… and then a second shot made it fall to its knees… and a third leaving it smoldering while it leaned against the barrier at the edge.

"Not so tough _now_ , are you, _William_?" The young woman asked angrily, moving closer. "I'm gonna make sure you _never_ try to hurt Sherry again, and…

For the first time since this nightmare began, Claire had felt powerful, gaining more and more confidence as the electric rifle brought the eye-monster to its knees, and she even had this whole badass speech in her mind, but there was no chance to use it. Suddenly the monster let out a kind of growling sound as its body began to hiss and bubble like it was getting boiled from the inside, and then it started to change.

Before her eyes, the redness that had been covering the monster's one side quickly spread to completely cover both, while its human head was kind of… pulled down from its normal position… flattened out so that the face was spread over where a normal person's heart would be. The completely red body now started to expand, growing over half a foot in height, and becoming far more muscular, with claws now on both hands… as well as the two new arms that were starting to form underneath them.

The final part of this… _mutation_ was the growth of a new head… one that was red and more reptilian like than human, with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Roaring again, this time in a single, much deeper voice than before, the only thing that Claire could think of to do was shoot it again with the electric rifle. The bolt hit it right in the human face on its chest, and its powerful body twitched as the energy crackled around it, but then the energy stopped, and the plates on its upper arm opened, allowing that horrible eye to focus on her.

" _LEON!_ " The young woman screamed, firing again.

Again, the monster's body twitched from the shot, making it growl, but other than that, there was no effect. With the claws on all four of its arms opening as it walked toward her, Claire had no choice but to keep backing up, even though she was rapidly running out of room. A moment later the door opened up behind her, with Leon rushing out of the engine car to save her, only to stop in his tracks and let out a less than manly scream of his own upon seeing the improved monster.

Expecting his to use that really powerful handgun that he had been carrying around, the young woman was disheartened to see that it was no longer on his belt, and he appeared to only have the standard one to use now. That didn't stop him from springing into action, though, and as soon as the shock wore off, Leon began shooting at the monster. Each shot struck its body in what should have been vital places; the new head, the human face, and so on, but there was barely any effect, just like the electric rifle.

Now both of them were backing up, heading around the other side of the engine car as the monster followed, and after reloading again, the young man resumed shooting, for all the good it did. Claire was still shooting as well, and it was starting to look like the eye-monster was going to stalk them forever, when the young woman's next shot hit the center of the yellow eye, just as it was opening.

This time there was a spray of a kind of discolored liquid from it, and now the flowing electricity was a lot more effective, making the monster roar in agony as it stumbled backwards. The fluid continued to pour out from the destroyed eyeball, even after the skin plates were closed again, and instead of attacking them in some kind of rage… the monster retreated, leaping onto one of the mounted light fixtures, and leaving the train elevator to continue on its way.

"We… did it?" Leon asked, both of them watching the monster get further away. "Are you okay, C…

She interrupted his words by rushing over and hugging him, burying her face in his chest as she felt his arms go around her as well. That had been a close one; if she hadn't managed to hit the thing's eyeball, its _improvements_ would have left her and Leon torn to shreds, not to mention Sherry and Ada. It was hard to believe the difference between how tough Claire had felt a moment ago, and how scared she now was of the monster's regenerative abilities… but at least Leon was there to hold her.

"Everything's going to be all right, Claire." The young man reassured her, lightly stroking her hair. "I _promise_ you, we're gonna get out of this."

The young woman didn't say anything in reply, instead just holding onto him even tighter as the platform continued on its seemingly never ending descent.


	35. Chapter 35 Splitting Up Again

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty Five: Splitting Up Again**

"Please, wake up, Sherry." Claire said with growing desperation in her voice. "Please, wake up."

Eventually, the train elevator had reached the bottom of the shaft, and upon leaving the platform, they found themselves inside of a well-lit facility that was made of metal and concrete. The old fashioned light fixtures and construction methods were gone, replaced by modern fluorescent lights and architecture, making this place look a lot newer than any of the sewers and water treatment facilities above it.

For now, there didn't seem to be any sign of the giant, the eye-monster, or any other creatures lurking around, so the first thing they did was try to find a safe place to keep the injured members of their group. Leon had picked up the still unconscious Ada, carrying her out of the engine car while Claire carried the little girl, and thankfully the first door they tried, led into a small security station.

Beyond the desk and deactivated monitors, there was a very large sofa in the room, and after laying the woman in red down at one end, there was still enough room for Sherry to rest at the other. The door was sturdy enough, so this appeared to be the safest place that could be found, but upon seeing the _Umbrella_ logo on all of the paperwork on the desk, as well as painted onto one of the walls outside, the young man had a feeling that they weren't quite out of danger yet.

"It's a good thing you're out, Ada." He commented, finishing her treatment as best he could. "If you weren't, then this would probably hurt."

With the supplies Leon had kept from the first aid kit, as well as what remained of another that was found in a nearby cabinet, the young man managed to suture and bandage the multiple wounds caused by the eye-monster's claws… but her skin was paler than usual, meaning that she had probably lost a good amount of blood, and would probably be weak when she woke up.

"I found some bullets." Claire said after rummaging through the rest of the cabinets in the room. "And there was _this_ , too… not much ammo for it, though."

Dividing the clips she had found for their 9mm pistols between them, the young woman also handed him a larger weapon. At first Leon thought it was an assault rifle, but upon closer inspection realized that it was more like a machine-pistol… and although it had a pretty large magazine, there was only a single extra clip… meaning that just like with the Desert Eagle, he was going to have to use it wisely.

"Okay, we've gotta find something to help Sherry." The young woman continued, her voice breaking up a little. "There's just _gotta_ be something in this place that can make her better."

"If there is, Claire, we'll find it, I _promise_." Leon replied, putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. "Sherry's lucky to have someone like you looking out for her, but we've gotta keep it together, okay?"

Claire nodded, and as much as the young man wished that he could spend more time comforting her, Sherry's condition seemed to be gradually getting worse. Still unconscious, the little girl's breathing was now more labored, but she wasn't sweating as much now… and who could say whether that was good or bad? All Leon knew was that they had to both find something to help Sherry, as well as locating a way out of this place, so he led Claire out of the security station, and they were immediately faced with a decision.

Aside from where the train elevator platform was, there were two other exits from this first lobby; one being what looked like an elevator off to the right, and the other being a metal door straight across from where they were standing. Normally, after everything that they had both been through, Leon would _never_ suggest the idea of splitting up, but with Sherry getting worse, it didn't look like they had a lot of time.

"No, we _can't_ split up." The young woman argued. "Not again… I… I don't want to be on my own again."

"I don't, either, Claire." He reassured her. "If Sherry wasn't getting worse, I'd say we should stick together, but I don't think we have a choice this time."

Honestly, he was just as scared as she was about being alone again, if not more so, but this wasn't about them. There were two people counting on them, who would probably both die if they didn't succeed, and as much as he just wanted to just put his arms around Claire, and keep them there forever… Ada and Sherry needed them. So he gave the young woman a kiss on the forehead, reassured her again that everything was going to be all right, and then started walking toward the elevator.

"Be careful, Leon." Claire called after him with an almost defeated tone. "Whatever happens, just come back to me, okay?"

"Don't worry, I will." He called back, pushing the elevator's button. "We're getting out of here together, Claire, trust me."

The elevator must have already been on this level, because the doors opened almost immediately, allowing him to step inside. With a push of the only available button, the doors slid closed just as quickly, separating him from Claire for the fourth time since the night began. It absolutely killed him each time it had happened; the exploding truck, running after Sherry, falling from the bridge, and now willingly parting ways as the elevator started up.

Was it stupid that he was falling for her? Less than twelve hours ago, his life had been simple; driving to Raccoon City in order to start what was _supposed_ to be a long career in law enforcement, but then the whole world turned into a _George Romero_ movie, and then there was this girl… Claire Redfield, in town searching for her missing brother… and it felt silly now that he had once considered her just another civilian that needed protecting.

For a time, he had entertained delusions of being with Ada Wong, and he had been enthralled by her beauty, ability to take care of herself, and obvious intelligence. However, the woman in red was just too _cold_ for that kind of thing, and part of him had known that from the start. He highly doubted that Ada was some kind of spy for Umbrella, like Annette Birkin had accused her of being, but… it wasn't like she had any _real_ interest in him anyway.

Which brought Leon's thoughts back to Claire, and how he hoped that she would still feel the same way about him after they escaped… but now the time for those thoughts was over as the elevator slowly stopped. Chambering a round in his machine pistol, the young man held the weapon ready while the doors slid open, revealing a darkened passage. The light from the elevator allowed him to see that there were pipes running along the ceiling, making this place seem like a basement.

The floors were grated metal, and the walls looked like steel, but beyond where the elevator's interior lights shined, was almost total darkness. This little bit of light was also taken away the moment he stepped out of the elevator, when the doors slid closed, leaving _everything_ dark. As unnerving as it was to be in this place, Leon was just happy that he hadn't sent Claire up here, and as his eyes adjusted, he realized that it wasn't _complete_ darkness.

In fact, there was a dim orange glow coming from up ahead, and after a few more seconds of letting his eyes adjust, the young man was starting to be able to make out shapes in the corridor up ahead. There was also a faint kind of rumbling sound… no, not a rumbling, more like a vibration that Leon could feel in the floor through his boots, and it got just a little bit stronger with each step.

Trying to control his breathing so that it wouldn't hide any possible sound around him, the young man moved down the corridor, step by step until he rounded a corner, and couldn't help taking in a really deep breath that resounded throughout the area. Wait a second, he had been holding his breath at the time, so what had made that sound? The answer came in a sudden movement of shadow across the distant orange glow, in the form of something leaping at him on all fours.

Crying out in pain from feeling something sharp slash across his cheek as if flew past, Leon stumbled backwards, tripping over a box or a crate or something, causing a lot more noise as what sounded like a bunch of metal pipes came spilling out of it. The creature's silhouette could be seen turning around to face him, and then it leapt again before he even had a chance to get up, however, its judgement of distance must've been off, because it landed a few feet short.

Not only had the creature, by some miracle, landed short, but it had also landed on the metal pipes, causing it to lose its footing and fall over sideways. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Leon grabbed the machine pistol from where it had fallen… after feeling around for a second, and then the tunnel was brightly illuminated in a series of flashes to the sound of _pop-pop-pop-pop-pop_.

The really odd looking creature… with its skinned body and exposed brain… was peppered with bullets, shrieking as pieces of its flesh were blown off, and finally collapsing, leaving the young man very thankful that Claire had found this weapon back at the security station. Of course, the flashes meant that his eyes had to adjust to the darkness all over again, but this was a little bit easier the closer he got to the source of the orange glow.

This glow, it turns out after rounding the next corner, was coming from far below the corridor itself, as it opened up into a wider chamber like it had done back where he had met Annette. But instead of water being stored inside the massive holding tank below the grated catwalk, there was an enormous vat of molten… something. As for the catwalk, it turned in order to loop around a huge pillar of some kind, so Leon followed it all the way around until a blinking blue light made a contrast to the orange glow.

Not that he was an expert on technology, or even knew what this pillar thing was that he was standing in front of, but the only thing the young man could think of to do was to feel around near the light until finding a switch. It was large and heavy, taking some effort to push, but once he did, the whole chamber echoed with a loud _bam!_ The vibrations in the floor intensified as energy began to crackle around the pillar, and Leon was starting to worry that he had made a mistake… but then the rumbling subsided as the chamber was filled with light.

Large industrial light fixtures had come to life all around the chamber, and in the previously darkened corridor, but all was not good news… now that there was more light and less noise, the young man was able to see that he was not alone in this chamber. Someone else had just emerged from the corridor… someone big, wearing a green long coat, and walking to the heavy sound of _thump-thump-thump_.


	36. Chapter 36 Restoring Power

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty Six: Restoring Power**

"Be careful, Leon." Claire called after him with an almost defeated tone. "Whatever happens, just come back to me, okay?"

"Don't worry, I will." Leon called back, pushing the elevator's button. "We're getting out of here together, Claire, trust me."

With that, he was gone, the elevator doors sliding closed, and the young man heading up to wherever that elevator went… leaving Claire all by herself. It was comforting to know that Sherry, and even Ada were sort of safe inside that security station, but it was the thought of the little girl's worsening condition that really allowed her to continue. The young woman wanted to run and hide, or just leave this whole mess to someone else… it wasn't like she caused the outbreak of either virus… she hadn't even been in the city.

But where Sherry was concerned, Claire found herself willing to do anything that it took to keep her safe… and she wondered if this was what it felt like to be a mom. There were always incredible stories in the news about mothers doing amazing, sometimes impossible things for their children, and yes, she knew that Sherry wasn't hers… but that didn't matter. Taking a deep breath, the young woman started toward the door ahead, not giving herself the chance to hesitate before pulling it open.

Stepping through into a chamber that echoed with her footsteps across the metal grating, the only thing that Claire could see was the dim blue lights that ran along both sides of the walkway, providing little more illumination than those guiding lights on the floor of movie theaters. The open chamber that she was now inside was probably huge, judging by the sound of the echoes, and the only thing for her to do was follow the path ahead.

This path led to some kind of central junction, but instead of having just a couple dim lights, this covered area at the center of the chamber was _covered_ with dim blue lights. There was a large device in the middle of the room, with just enough light to see that it was some kind of high capacity fuse-box… and also that the main fuse had been removed, judging by the empty slot at the top. Of course, she had no idea where to get another one, but that was before noticing the other paths away from the junction.

Besides the way she came, there were two other paths to choose from, but only one of those paths continued on with the dim blue lights. Some kind of guide during power loss, maybe? There was no point in trying the dark path, since the young woman couldn't see along it anyway, so she turned, and followed the lights. This path led her down another walkway, which ended at a door like she expected, however, this door was a lot bigger and heavier than the one she had come through… and also cold to the touch.

It took some effort to get the heavy door to swing open, but when she stepped into the next room, Claire gasped and couldn't help hugging herself because of how unforgivingly cold this place was. With her own breath visible in front of her face, the young woman was able to see more now, probably because the dim blue lights across the walls were reflecting off the layer of frost that seemed to cover _everything_. Why does it have to be so cold in here? She wondered, hugging herself tighter as the temperature started to hurt.

As Claire's eyes adjusted to the amount of light, she could see that this place was filled with rows of storage racks, each one containing what looked like spare parts for machinery of some kind. Well, a maintenance shop _was_ the most likely place to find a fuse, but the young woman was not exactly dressed for the weather, so she decided to get this search over quickly… resulting in her slipping on the frosty floor, and falling on her rear.

"Ow, double damn it!" She yelled, scaring herself with the sudden noise as she rubbed the sore spot.

The floor was just as frost covered as everything else in this room, as Claire now knew from experience, and now she had to take everything slowly, since even getting back up was difficult. Once on her feet, the young woman did a kind of shuffling thing with her feet, but as she went from storage rack to storage rack, she realized that she didn't have a clue what she was looking for… at least, not until moving around the next rack, and seeing something move, before pain shot across the side of her head.

The impact of something metal against her skull was enough to make her lose her footing completely, causing the young woman to fall against the nearest rack, knocking them all over like dominoes in the process, with her left a little dazed as she laid on top of the first one. Trying to sit up, Claire found herself being roughly forced back down by the foot that was now on her chest, and the young woman looked up just in time to see the barrel of a gun being aimed down at her.

"Hello again." Annette Birkin said, painfully digging her heel into Claire's chest. "You were one of the girls with the cop I shot, right? Friends of that Umbrella spy, Ada? I couldn't find Sherry anywhere near the storerooms in the sewers, but then, you know what happened? I found her pendent in a trash pile near where we met."

Taking something out of her pocket, and letting it dangle from its gold chain, Claire could see that the blonde woman was holding some kind of locket. It was open, and even in the dim light, she could see a small photo inside of three people, most likely Sherry and her parents… but there was also something else… a small capsule of some kind that was filled with a strange liquid.

"You tried to convince me you had Sherry, and now I believe you." Annette continued, closing the pendent. "So, you can tell either me where my daughter is, or I swear to _Christ_ , you little bitch, that I know how to shoot you with _every_ bullet in this gun without killing you."

"Sherry's hurt!" Claire quickly exclaimed as the heel was ground deeper into her chest. "She's getting sick or something… I don't know how to help her!"

Not wanting to give the blonde woman the chance to consider hurting her more, the young woman quickly told her everything that had been happening with Sherry; the things the little girl had described feeling, all of her worsening symptoms, and what she had done so far to try and help her. Partly expecting Annette to fly into a rage, or even shoot her, Claire instead only felt that damn heel grinding deeper into her chest, while the gun barrel was lightly touched to the end of her nose.

"I can't risk not believing you." The blonde woman said, calmly yet angrily at the same time. "You've perfectly described the early stages of _G-Virus Embryonic Implantation_ , something that only my husband and I are aware of… so congratulations, you get to live for the time being. Now go over to the far shelf on the right, and grab one of the fuses… we're going to need some light."

Annette grabbed her by the hair, making the young woman cry out as she was pulled to her feet, spun around, and feeling the gun barrel pressed against the base of her skull as Claire was forced to walk forward. The fuses were exactly where the blonde woman had said, and once she had one of them, the young woman was marched this way out of the cold storage room, and back down the walkway.

"I'm actually glad you're here… _Kara_ , was it?" Annette continued as the headed toward the junction. "See, in order to save Sherry, and you _better_ not be lying to me, we have to back down into my husband's laboratory, and well… it's gotten a little dangerous down there with everything that's happened."

Suddenly there was a slight rumbling that could be felt through the floor, prompting the blonde woman to mumble something about the generator switch coming on by itself, but at least it saved them the trip. By this time they had reached the junction, and after being told how to set in the fuse, Claire installed it into the top of the machine, which was more difficult than it should have been, since Annette insisted at keeping her at gunpoint.

The machine started to move the moment the fuse was in place, winding it down into the port, and then leaving them in darkness as the blue lights shut down, only for the main lights of the facility to come blinking on a couple seconds later. As she had expected, Claire could now see that this chamber was huge, far larger than the one at the water treatment plant, but there wasn't much time to admire it, since Annette immediately started moving her down the other walkway.

"Okay, now we can see." The blonde woman said as they approached a door at the far end. "Truth be told, it's far easier to make the _G-Virus Vaccine_ with a second person, especially since I've never _actually_ synthesized any before… so if it makes you feel any better, if you _survive_ being my human shield, you'll be promoted to lab assistant."

"Annette, I'm not a spy." Claire replied, nervous about saying the wrong thing. "I've been protecting Sherry since I found her in the RPD, and all I want is to make her better."

Annette said nothing, simply pushing the young woman further along, until they had reached the door. Claire pulled it open, and stepped through into another hallway that reminded her of the lobby where the train elevator stopped. But instead of several ways to go, there was only a simple choice between what looked like an office door, and a heavy metal shutter that blocked access to the rest of the hallway.

"I sealed off the rest of the lab when the trouble started." The blonde woman explained. "Go through the door, so we can release the lockdown."

It wasn't like she had any choice, so Claire veered off to the right, opening the door and stepping into what looked like a kind of office/sleep room for night shift employees, the young woman reflexively raised her electric rifle and pulled the trigger just as something green lunged at her. There was a shriek as the green creature was electrocuted, parts of it turning black and smoldering as it collapsed to the floor, and after a couple seconds of thrashing, it was over.

"What the _fuck_ is that?!" The young woman exclaimed, looking down at its viney arms, stem-like body, and almost flower-like purple mouth that was filled with sharp spines.

"William called it _Ivy_." Annette explained, pushing her to step over the smoldering creature. "It's what happens when certain plants get infected with the T-Virus, so it's a good thing you found that rifle, isn't it? This is just a sample of what's down in the labs, so if you'll move over to that console over there and lift the lockdown… we can get started."


	37. Chapter 37 End of Pursuit

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty Seven: End of Pursuit**

"Oh… shit." Leon quietly said as the giant stepped onto the far end of the catwalk.

There was nowhere to go, since the catwalk was a dead end at the reset controls, and aside from taking a swim in the molten vat of whatever that stuff was down there, the only way out was to go through the green long-coat wearing giant… basically all of his options were terrible. So he started walking toward his pursuer, getting the machine pistol ready, while trying to keep his growing fear under control.

After all, the young man had seen first-hand the power of this monster, the level of destruction it was capable of dishing out, as well as how easily it could destroy a human being. A quick memory of Ben's fate back near the RPD's Press Conference room flashed through Leon's mind, and that almost made him want to see if he could clear the edge of the molten vat by jumping, but then he remembered something: Ben had been taken by surprise and was unarmed… while _he_ was neither.

"Okay, you are _really_ starting to piss me off!" Leon yelled, trying to hide his fear underneath anger. "What the hell is your problem, anyway?! You just _drop_ into the RPD outta _nowhere_ , and then what… just _decide_ that you like me?! Well, fuck you! Fuck you, and whoever dropped you on this city!"

With that, the young man pulled the trigger, sending a metallic rain of bullets toward the giant to the sound of _pop-pop-pop-pop-pop_. Having moved to less than half the original distance between them, most of the bullets hit their target, and although the ones that struck the giant's massive body had little to no effect, the ones that struck it in the face were a different story. Each one that landed there made the pursuer twitch, and the ones that hit near the eyes would sometimes make it raise its big arms to protect them, and giving the young man hope that maybe this thing _could_ be defeated after all.

 _Click_ … the machine pistol's magazine was empty after firing a surprising amount of bullets, but instead of reloading right away, Leon backed off, allowing the giant to recover and start pursuing him again, while he went around the corner to where the control box was located. Unfortunately, for the plan that he was cooking up, he needed the giant to be right in front of him… and there wasn't much room on the catwalk after turning the corner.

 _Thump-thump-thump_ … the giant's footsteps were shaking the catwalk as it approached, and Leon swallowed hard, fighting the urge to panic as it closed in. All he could think of was how Claire, Ada, and Sherry were all counting on him to get them out of Raccoon City safely, and if he _somehow_ got out of this… okay, the time for thoughts was now officially over as the giant rounded the corner… _cornering_ him before swing one of those big arms right at him.

Ducking down so that he felt the air moving while the incredibly powerful punch sailed right over his head, everything shook as the giant's fist struck the power generating pillar instead, causing both of them to be put off balance for a moment. Regaining their balance at the same time, the giant raised both arms to finish Leon off, but the young man was just a little bit faster about aiming the machine pistol upward, and pulling the trigger.

 _Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!_ The fury of a full magazine took the giant completely by surprise, and now that Leon was closer, all of the bullets were hitting it right in the face, forcing it to stumble backwards. This time whenever his pursuer tried raising its arms to defend its face, the young man adjusted his aim to keep hitting it, and the giant kept stumbling back… and back… and back, until the abomination's back was right up against the guard rail, and then…

 _Click…_

Leon could feel the color draining out of his face as the weapon ran dry, and even though the giant was bending over backwards against the guardrail, in a couple seconds it was going to right itself, and then… and then he would be _royally_ screwed. Now with only his police issue 9mm pistol to defend himself, and no way to run past the giant, things were about to go bad really fast… unless… unless a really stupid and dangerous idea popped into his head... which it did.

After everything that had happened this night, Leon was not about to let everything end this way. He was not about to sacrifice the safety of Ada and Sherry, nor was he about to give up the chance of having something with Claire after all this was over… so without allowing himself to think about what he was doing, for fear of talking himself out of it… he ran right toward the giant.

Dropping the machine pistol, and sprinting to full speed, the young man rammed his shoulder into the giant as hard as he could, hearing the metallic _clink_ of a section of guardrail snapping, and feeling the giant tipping backwards… and him going along for the ride. Reaching out his arms to try and grab the guardrail, Leon's hands found nothing as they both started to fall, but somehow one of his hands managed to find the catwalk itself.

Taking a moment to watch as the giant fell silently into the molten vat below, seeing the bright orange splash of chemical, and then his pursuer simply being gone was rewarding… but it didn't stop the strain that holding onto the catwalk was having on his recently sutured wounds. Of course, it wasn't like letting go was an option, with great effort, and a feeling that at least part of his wound had reopened, Leon swung his leg back over the edge, and slowly pulled himself back up onto the catwalk.

Once there was no longer a danger of falling, the young man took a look over the side just to make sure that his pursuer hadn't somehow pulled itself out of the vat… and after looking for several seconds, he discovered that it hadn't. In fact, there was no movement at all… meaning that he had won. Leon, all by himself, had taken on the seemingly unstoppable giant in a fair fight, and had _won_.

"Like I said… _fuck you_." He groaned, trying to ignore the rediscovered pain, using the guardrail to stand up. "Fuck you and the…

Suddenly there was a new tremor in the catwalk, seeming to come from the pillar while even more crackling energy started to flow up and down its surface, especially in the area that had been damaged by the giant's fist. Then the rumbling stopped for a second as something like a ruptured pipe started hissing up above, only to start up again… stop again… and start again as if the system was trying to compensate for the damage… and not having too much success.

"Oh God." Leon said, helplessly looking around for a way to fix whatever the giant had broken. "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God."

No, he didn't know the first thing about power reactors, assuming that was that the pillar's purpose was, but as the struggle between the rumbling and whatever countermeasures the system was employing to stop it, the signs were pretty clear that he should probably leave the area. The good news was that now the lights were on, allowing the young man to see down the catwalks and the resulting corridor… but the bad news was that right as he was moving through the area where he had met the creature with the exposed brain… another one was now climbing out of a vent.

Realizing that maybe her preferred to see these creatures in total darkness, Leon froze in place as the thing crawled its way across and down the wall as if it were a lizard, the creature stopped after reaching the floor, only to slowly let out its several foot long tongue, which passed along the floor… easily cutting into both the metal and the other creature's body, before retracting. However, the one thing it didn't pay attention to… was Leon.

Turning its head back toward the pillar every time the rumbling would start, the creature ignored the young man completely as it walked past as if it were blind or something. Not that he was complaining about not having to fight another one of those things, after the last one had nearly cleaved off his head. Either way, the route to the elevator was now clear, and the creature was moving further away, so Leon moved on, only to stop when his foot hit one of the spilled pipes with a loud metallic _clank_.

"Oh no." He whispered, turning his head to look at the creature.

It appeared that he and it had both stopped at the same time in reaction to the noise, but then the creature turned around, and started to walk back in his direction. Feeling a slight sense of panic return, Leon resumed his trip back to the elevator, but while trying not to make any more sounds that would attract the tongue-creature. This seemed to work, with the creature stopping at the spot where his foot had struck the pipe, but then he was forced to push the elevator button.

The doors opened with a hiss, and the creature made a kind of grunting sound an instant later, and starting to run toward them at the same time that Leon got inside. Now rapidly pushing the button for them to close, the doors seemed to be moving in slow motion, while the creature appeared to be getting faster. With a shriek, it leapt toward the closing doors, but there was not enough space for it to get through, resulting with a loud thud against them just as they closed all the way.

Unable to believe that he had survived _another_ near death experience, the young man just stood there like an idiot, replaying his encounters with both the giant and each tongue-creature in his mind, until being startled when the elevator started moving again. Finally able to let out a sigh of relief as he leaned against the back, Leon brought his hand up to his partially opened wound, and hoped that there wasn't much more to go through before the nightmare would end.


	38. Chapter 38 Making the Vaccine

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty Eight: Making the Vaccine**

Once the lockdown to the rest of the laboratories was lifted, the metal shutter was raised, allowing Claire and Annette to continue down the previously blocked corridor. Turns out that this corridor only went for about another five meters before the next door opened into a stairwell… one that went down even further into lower levels, and ran alongside a massive kind of mutated… _beanstalk_ that could have been compared in size to the pillar that Leon had discovered.

"Things have certainly grown a bit in the past few weeks." Annette commented, still making Claire go first at gunpoint. "William's work was nothing short of astonishing, and if those backstabbing _idiots_ at Umbrella hadn't tried to steal it from him, who _knows_ what else he could have accomplished?"

"Annette, look what this virus is doing to Raccoon City." Claire replied, still trying to reach her. "Look what it's doing to your _own_ daughter… don't you see, something like the T and G Viruses should never have been created."

The young woman had more to say, but was stopped when Annette grabbed her by the hair, pulling her backwards, and then shoving her forward so that Claire had to stumble down the last few stairs before falling over sideways onto the floor at the bottom. _Bang!_ Some of the concrete cracked right next to her leg, and then after a second gunshot, some splintered right next to the young woman's head, making her _yelp_ before getting into a fetal position.

"Understand something, you little _tramp_." The blonde woman said calmly, keeping the gun aimed at her while reaching the bottom of the stairs. "The only reason you are alive right now is because having two of us down here gives me a better chance of getting the vaccine back to my daughter. Now get up, and keep moving."

Deciding that maybe it was best to simply keep quiet, since Annette on top of being unstable, was hypersensitive to criticism about her husband's work, and besides, the blonde woman wasn't important right now. The little girl back up in the security station was, but once Sherry was better… well, Claire wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do about Annette. Clearly she was no longer fit to take care of a child, but it wasn't like she could just get rid of her… at least without Sherry hating her forever.

The door at the bottom of the stairs led to, surprise, another corridor, but where the young woman was expecting to find more of those plant monsters, the only thing that she found so far were zombies. Without seeing much of them since leaving the RPD, she had almost forgotten about how disturbing and nauseating it was to see them shambling around with glazed over eyes and rotting flesh.

Since she didn't know how much ammunition was left in her electric rifle, Claire decided to use the pistol she had gotten from Chief Irons, and unlike with the eye-monster, it proved more than effective. _Bang! Bang! Bang!_ It surprised the young woman how good she was getting at this, dropping zombie after zombie… but she also felt kind of guilty that although these people had all once been human, it was now barely effecting her to pull the trigger.

Once the small crowd of former-scientists had been dealt with, the two of them rounded a corner, into a place that looked almost like a waiting room or a lobby. In this place were some benches like one would see in a train station, and the only other feature of the room was a large door, similar to the one that led into the cold storage room, and painted above the door were the words:

 _BOTTOM PLATFORM_

"Keep moving, we're almost there." Annette said, pushing her forward when she stopped to look at it. "I think you've done enough sightseeing around my facilities as it is."

Passing several rooms and possible alternate corridors as they continued down this one linear hallway, Annette finally stopped her in front of a sturdy looking door that had a card reader next to the handle, before taking what looked like an identification badge out from around her neck and under her shirt. There was a sharp beep from the reader before the door slid open with a hiss, and now this place was finally starting to look like a real laboratory as they entered.

There was complicated equipment lining the walls, blackboards covered with equations and formulas that Claire couldn't even begin to understand… and then there were the subjects. They were people, or rather, zombies, partially dissected and splayed open across the tables, with numbered pins and labels stuck inside. There were also written notes beside each one, but the young woman found that she didn't want to see the bodies long enough to read the findings.

"Okay, we're here." Annette said, seeming to relax a little. "Now, you're pretty, so that probably means you're an idiot… at least that _spy_ had half a brain. Go over to the exo… oh, what's the use… the _fancy_ machine with the blinking lights in the far corner, and do _exactly_ what I say."

This was one of those times that Claire wanted to tell the old bitch what she could do with her snide, condescending comments, but she didn't for two reasons: One, she didn't want to get shot, and two… she really didn't have a single clue how to operate or even _understand_ anything in this room. So she simply turned her brain off, going to her station and blindly following Annette's instructions… sort of like she had done for her professor in Biology class, and before she knew it, something was happening.

"Set the pressure at two hundred." Annette ordered, messing with her own machine at the same time. "You're only creating the _base_ , but like I said, this has never been done before, and you still need to do _precision_ work."

"Yes, _Dr. Frankenstein_." Claire grumbled under her breath. "Thank you for reminding me why I hate _school_ so much."

For several minutes they worked, and since it appeared that all of the individual components were already assembled, it did not take long before the strange liquid she was boiling turned blue, a signal that the blonde woman told her would mean that the base was complete. At the same time, the machine that Annette was working on let out a shrill _beep_ , and the blonde woman let out a short triumphant laugh when the liquid she was working on, what she called the _medium_ , turned red.

"Bring the base over here, quickly." The blonde woman ordered, walking over to a machine in the center of the room. "We have to combine the base and the medium inside the centrifuge."

Again following her instructions, Claire brought over the base, and once both liquids were combined, Annette turned on the centrifuge, spinning the concoction at incredibly high speeds. With the timer set to two minutes, the young woman felt like the process was taking forever, especially since she didn't know how long Sherry had left. Soon, however, the machine came to a stop, and there, almost glowing with a pretty purple color, was the G-Virus Vaccine.

"We've done it." Annette said, sighing with relief. "Take the cartridge, and load it into a syringe, quickly."

Without hesitation, Claire took the cartridge out of the centrifuge, and loaded it into a kind of hypodermic syringe, but just as she was showing the finished product to Annette, they both gasped as one of the large ventilation ducts burst above them… as something jumped down to the floor. As the dust cleared, and the young woman coughed, she was able to see that it was the eye-monster, still porting its recent improvements… that had landed right in front of the blonde woman.

"W… William?" Annette asked in disbelief as its regenerated yellow eye opened. "You're…

But her words were cut off as the monster rushed forward, cutting off her scream when it began tearing into her flesh with its claws. Blood sprayed over the walls and machines as its two bottom arms picked up the gurgling woman, and its top claws continued to slice into her, but among the blood and remains… her id card flew off as well, landing right next to Claire, and Sherry's pendent landed closer to the door. There was no time to think; the young woman picking up the card, and with the vaccine in her hand, running back to the door, stopping only to pick up the pendent.

The eye-monster was just finishing with Annette when the card allowed her to open the door, and then it cast her aside, sprinting toward the young woman as she left the room, and leaving a deep impression in the door after it slammed shut in its face. Her only goal now was to get the vaccine back to Sherry, and knowing that creature, the door wouldn't hold it for long, so she ran… back down the hallways, which were thankfully still zombie free, and back up the stairs just as the whole facility started to rumble.

Well, actually, it rumbled, stopped, rumbled more intensely, stopped again, and repeat… as if something was going wrong, and something else was trying to stop it. Thankfully, nothing else tried to stop her as she sprinted up the stairs… nothing besides the stairs, themselves, since Claire had never been a big fan of the _Stairmaster_ , and soon she was back at the catwalks that would lead back to Sherry.

"Almost there." The young woman said to herself as her legs got even more tired. "Almost there… come on, Claire… Sherry needs you."

Huffing and puffing her way past the fuse box, and moving back down the final catwalk, Claire stumbled her way back into the front lobby of the facility, feeling even more fatigue when she saw the entrance to the security station up ahead… and then screaming when she ran into something that was stumbling its way around the corner at the same time. Wait, not something… it was _Leon_.

"Oh, Claire, I'm so glad you're okay." He said, with them embracing for a quick hug. "I didn't find a cure, but I fought that giant… but something else happened, and you're probably not gonna like it."

"Don't worry, Leon, I've got the vaccine… Annette helped me." She explained, showing him the syringe once the hug was over. "So let's help Sherry, and then whatever else happened up there, we can deal with…

" _The self-destruct sequence has been activated_." A booming pre-recorded voice seemed to say from everywhere at once. " _Repeat, the self-destruct sequence has been activated; this sequence cannot be aborted. All employees proceed to the emergency car at the bottom platform_."


	39. Chapter 39 True Colors

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Thirty Nine: True Colors**

Judging by the computer's announcement, the alarms that followed, and the slowly intensifying rumbling in the facility, all attempts to stop the damage the giant had done to that reactor pillar had failed. Now some kind of meltdown was about to happen, leaving the group with probably only a short time to find a way out of this place… if there even _was_ one. There was also the matter of Sherry and Ada, but upon reentering the security station, some good news was waiting for them.

Ada was awake; still looking pale and moving slowly, but she had managed to sit up by herself, and appeared to be understandably concerned with the alarms as she looked around. In fact, her first words to Leon were _'what did you do?'_ , but by then the young man had refocused his attention onto Claire. He, and then Ada as well, watched intently while the young woman injected the purple liquid into the little girl's arm.

The hypodermic syringe put the substance into her arm with a sharp hiss, and for several seconds nothing happened. Were they too late? Leon wondered, beginning to fear the worst. Claire had briefly explained to him that Sherry had become infected with something called the G-Virus, and with as long as it had been between the symptoms appearing, and administering the cure… he really hoped it wasn't too late.

" _All employees proceed to the bottom platform_." The computer announced.

Then it happened; the little girl started to breathe more normally, rolling her head back and forth just a little as she narrowed her eyebrows and made a kind of groaning sound. Her movements were becoming more pronounced now, slightly twisting her whole body as if she were trying to get comfortable during a night's sleep, and then finally starting to move her arms as well.

"Claire?" Sherry asked weakly, struggling to open her eyes. "Claire… what happened? Was I asleep?"

"Everything's okay now, Sherry." The young woman replied, hugging her. "Yeah, you were just taking a little nap… do you feel any better?"

The little girl nodded, but still yawned and stretched, while being a little slow to get up, but the fact that she was able to do anything at all after surviving a G-Virus infection was amazing in itself. Sherry was a little wobbly at first, but quickly regained her balance, only to gain a surprised look on her face when she finally noticed that alarms going off, as well as the rumbling.

"What did you do?!" The little girl exclaimed, immediately looking over at Leon.

"We can punish Leon for dooming us later." Ada interrupted before he could defend himself. "Right now we have to get the hell out of here."

The woman in red was a little wobbly herself as she got to her feet, but soon all four of them were headed back out the door into the lobby. The train elevator was not an option, and Leon already knew that the elevator was a dead end, so now it was Claire leading everyone back through the door she had previously explored. The young man was starting to wonder how so many massive chambers had been constructed, as Claire led them across a long, narrow, walkway… however, she hesitated upon reaching the central junction, eventually deciding to head to the right.

"Hold on a second." Ada said, stopping the group. "All right, it's pretty obvious that we need to escape, but does anyone have the slightest idea where we are escaping _to_ … or are we just running around like idiots?"

"Listen." Claire answered as the announcement played again. "It keeps telling us to go to the bottom platform, and I know where that is… oh, Sherry, here, I almost forgot."

Leon watched as the young woman took something out of her pocket, and the little girl was excited to see that it was a kind of gold locket. Even though they were a little pressed for time, it was hard to not be touched by the moment, especially when Sherry exclaimed _'you found it!'_ a couple times while putting it around her neck. It also seemed like the little girl was having trouble closing it, and when she opened it again to see what was wrong, she took out a small vial of a red substance.

"Oh, my God!" Claire exclaimed, wide-eyed as she took the vial. "Sherry, give that here!"

"What's wrong, Claire?" The young man asked, looking more closely. "Is that more of the vaccine?"

The young woman seemed relieved to get it away from Sherry, but terrified of what was inside at the same time, making sure to keep her thumb over the cap. Turns out that it wasn't the vaccine at all, but a sample of the original _G-Virus_ that Annette had hidden there for some reason. To Leon, it made no sense that someone would leave something like that with a child, especially a parent to their own child… of course, Annette wasn't exactly…

"Hand the sample over, Claire." Ada suddenly ordered, interrupting Leon's thoughts as she aimed her pistol at them. "You said that's the G-Virus sample, right? Well, it's the last one, so give it to me right now."

"Ada, what are you talking about?" Leon asked in disbelief. "Don't you know what this thing is? It's what caused all this in the first place… why would you even…

Up until right now, the thought of Ada Wong being some kind of spy sent by Umbrella to steal Annette's husband's work was just ridiculous. She had been just another survivor like them, wandering into Raccoon City to find her boyfriend, just like Claire had come to find her brother, and that was it. However… that wasn't it at all… was it? It was all true, just like Annette said… Ada was a spy… and now she was supposed to bring the sample back to the people who let all this happen in the first place.

"Ada, you don't have to do this." The young man said, taking a step toward her, moving in the way of Claire. "Look around you, this place is falling apart… you can still escape with us, we _all_ can, just… let's destroy the sample, and then you can tell them it was already destroyed."

"No, Leon, I'm sorry, it… doesn't work like that." The woman in red explained, almost sadly. "Not with these people, so just… get out of the way, and tell your girlfriend to give me the sample. Then you two can go on with your lives; get married, have kids, get a house… or I can shoot both of you _right now_ , and the honeymoon's over."

After seeing what both the T and G Viruses had done to Raccoon City, there was no way that he, the last police officer in that city, was going to let a sample like that escape… but at the same time, how was he going to get out of this without Ada gunning them down? No, there was no way that she was actually going to shoot them, not after everything they had been through, so he just stood there, defiantly… and then Ada…lowered her weapon.

 _Bang!_

Suddenly a shot rang out, but it had not come from Ada, nor from anyone in their group, since the impact caused the woman in red to step forward, crying out as a small spray of blood came from her upper back. Now stumbling as she moved, the young man was able to see that there was someone standing behind her… an unrecognizable person who was covered in blood, and appeared to be… missing large sections of their body.

This poor, mutilated person tried to say something, only succeeding in letting out a strange gurgling sound, which spilled more blood onto the floor to match the trail from where they had dragged themselves along. The pistol then fell out of their hand as they collapsed, letting out a single, gurgling breath before surrendering to death. As for Ada, she stumbled sideways, attempting to catch herself on the guardrail… only for her hand to miss the bar, resulting in her tumbling right between the top and middle sections.

"Ada!" Leon yelled, making a sudden dive toward the edge.

Landing on his stomach and sliding the rest of the way, the good news was that he was somehow able to catch her hand just as she was starting to fall… the bad news, however… was that he had done so with his bad arm, and he could feel more of the sutures being pulled open. Of course, it wasn't like he could switch hands at the moment… or get a grip on anything that would stop him from slowly sliding over the edge and…

"Leon, hold on!" Claire yelled, diving on top of him. "I've got you! Sherry, help me pull!"

"Ada, you have to climb up!" The young man called, feeling Sherry pulling on him now as well. "Come on… I can't hold you!"

Unfortunately, the bullet had struck Ada's back, meaning that she probably couldn't climb up even if she wanted to… so Leon had to do it himself, starting to pull her up, only to cry out in pain as his wounded side nearly gave out. So he tried again, but now feeling even more sutures pop from the effort, and failing once again.

"Leon, I… wanted to escape with you." Ada said in a pained voice. "But… I can't hold on… it's over."

"Shut up, Ada, just shut up!" The young man yelled, making another failed attempt to lift her. "I promised you that we would all escape, you've just gotta… help me out here a…

Then her hand slipped from his grasp, and Leon couldn't believe what was happening as she silently vanished down into the darkness below. He wanted to do something… wanted to somehow reach her, or at least call out… but he couldn't… he was frozen in place, staring down into the nothingness until Claire and Sherry managed to pull him back all the way onto the catwalk.

"Give me that sample." He suddenly said, pulling the vial away from Claire. "This… this right here is what everyone's dying for? Well, then it can die with them!"

Dropping the vial over the edge, it too dropped into the darkness, and now no matter what happened, at least he knew that the last sample had been destroyed. Now all they had to do was escape… those who remained of the group, anyway, and as they helped him to his feet, the young man swore that he wouldn't lose anyone else… _anyone else_.

" _All employees proceed to the bottom platform_." The computer repeated, bringing him back into reality.

This place was about to blow up, so using his good arm, Leon picked up sherry, and took Claire's hand with the other, now leading them forward as the rumbling in the facility still increased.

"Who's that?" The little girl asked as they passed the unrecognizable dead person.

"We can worry about that later, Sherry." Claire quickly replied as they moved toward the stairwell. "Right now we have to get the hell out of here."


	40. Chapter 40 The Bottom Platform

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Forty: The Bottom Platform**

Everything that had happened with Ada had occurred so fast that Claire barely had time to process it before the run to escape resumed. Suffice to say, Ada was gone, and the young woman was glad that Sherry hadn't been able to recognize the mutilated remains of her own mother. Claire planned to tell her what happened to her parents… eventually… once she thought of a way to do it… but for now saving the little girl's life was top priority.

Annette's bloody trail went down the stairs and down the lower corridor, but thankfully they only had to go as far as the door marked _Bottom Platform_ , instead of following it all the way back to the lab. There was a pretty heavy locking mechanism on the door, but the indicator light on top of it was flashing with the words _Emergency Mode_ , meaning that the door was now unlocked since the whole facility was about to explode.

" _All employees proceed to the bottom platform_." The computer repeated again as Leon pulled the door open.

Beyond that door, a single, long hallway awaited them, and now the rumbling in the floor was so intense that pieces of the concrete walls were starting to crack and crumble, making it seem to take forever before the hallway opened up into a large chamber that resembled a subway station. There were support pillars, and benches for waiting passengers, and also several large metal cargo containers… but the most important thing was the train.

It was just sitting there, parked on a set of railroad tracks that ran along the far end of the room, vanishing into a long, dark tunnel. The train itself was nothing special, again, looking like something that would be found in any subway station, but now that this vehicle represented their only way to escape, to Claire it looked heavenly. She had a hard time believing that all they had to do for the nightmare to be over was get onboard the train, and leave, but then another large air duct exploded outward above their heads… and the eye-monster dropped down to block their path.

Immediately roaring in its now singular, and really deep voice, the claws on all four of its arms twitched when it slowly started toward them. Still, the rumbling and cracking of the facility was getting worse, but the monster didn't seem to be aware of the danger that was now threatening _all_ of them. After all, any humanity that remained from William Birkin during the initial infection was now long gone, and only this G-Virus abomination remained.

"Claire, take Sherry, and get on the train." Leon said, letting go of her hand and setting the little girl down. "Give me your other pistol, and go."

"No way, Leon." The young woman replied. "I can't leave you here with this thing."

Reassuring her that he didn't want to face it alone, the young man reminded her that the train had to be started up before they could escape, and since he didn't know the first thing about trains, it was up to Claire. As much as she wanted to stay at his side and fight this thing together, the young woman knew that she had to take care of Sherry before anything else, and also that Leon was right. So he distracted the creature by yelling and firing a shot into its head, allowing her and Sherry to make a run for the train.

"Come on, Sherry!" She yelled, pulling the little girl along. "Hurry!"

"My legs aren't as _long_ as yours, Claire!" Sherry replied, trying to keep up. "I can't keep up!"

Reaching down and picking the little girl up, Claire reached the train doors just as Leon started to shoot at the eye-monster with both pistols, but now the facility was shaking so badly that it was hard to even walk without stumbling. The door into the train was unlocked, as everything should have been during such an emergency, and after sitting the little girl down on one of the smaller cargo boxes, Claire moved through the forward door, and into the driver's compartment.

The really… really… complicated driver's compartment. There was a control panel in front of her, but it spread across the whole plate, and had so many different buttons and levers that it was almost looking at the controls for an _airplane_. Outside, she could still hear the gunshots from Leon's battle, and even saw them for a second as the thing pursued him around a cargo container… making her realize that she had to figure this whole thing out fast.

Then she saw it… the large red button off to the side of the side of some large levers, as well as the word _Emergency_ printed across it in black letters. One of the support pillars outside suddenly collapsed as the lights started flickering, so Claire pressed the button, and gasped when the whole control panel came to life. Everything was coming online, and now the train was starting to very slowly move forward, and…

"Oh, fuck, it's moving!" She yelled, scrambling back through the door. "Leon!"

Throwing open the side door and leaning out as the train started to move a little faster, the young woman screamed for him as loudly as she could, and thankfully he noticed her jumping and waving her arms. Of course, the eye-monster had noticed as well, moving a little faster as it chased after the now sprinting Leon. Another explosion rang out from the collapse of another pillar, and while the young man was able to get past it before it fell… the monster was not.

Letting out a roar as the pillar fell right on top of it, the eye monster was pinned to the floor while Leon made a running leap for the train… causing him to tackle Claire to the floor while the train started into the tunnel. There were bright flashes of light as the facility collapsed behind them, and the young woman held onto Leon tightly until the explosions finally stopped… and all was quiet.

"Was that it?" She asked, looking up at him. "Did we make it?"

"I think so." Leon replied, smiling with almost disbelief. "Yeah… I think we made it."

It took a moment of feeling the train as it continued down the tunnel for her to realize that they had, in fact, _really_ gotten away, and then they kissed. It was just a short one, but more than enough to give Claire goosebumps until well after the young man got up, and then helped her to her feet. There would be time for more later, once they emerged from the tunnel somewhere _really_ far away from Raccoon City, hopefully… and then she could show Leon just how much she appreciated him.

"Are we safe now, Claire?" Sherry asked, getting off of the crate. "Is it over?"

Reassuring the little girl that everything was going to be fine now, Claire found herself thinking about everyone who hadn't made it, watching the sections of the tunnel move by the train windows. Emmy, the Kendo brothers, Marvin Branagh, Chief Irons, Ben Bertolucci, Annette and William Birkin… and Ada Wong. All of them had lost their lives in the span of about twelve hours, and now…

Suddenly the train shook, interrupting her thoughts as some kind of alarm started going off, but there was nothing wrong that the young woman could see as all three of them looked around. At least, not in the car they were in. Now as she looked at the door that led to the rear cars of the train, an intense feeling of dread started to form in the pit of her stomach, and now the hairs on the back of her neck were starting to stand up.

"I'll check it out." Leon offered, starting toward the door. "You stay here with Sherry."

"No, Leon, no more splitting up." She replied, following him. "Sherry, go up into the driver's compartment and lock the door."

The little girl obeyed her without question, quickly running through the door, and locking it behind her, allowing the two of them to move forward without worrying about her safety. So Leon pushed open the door, leaving them standing outside on the rocking bridge between cars. The shaking was _definitely_ coming from the next one back, so with both pistols in his hands, the young man nodded to Claire, who was already readying her electric rifle.

"Ready, partner?" He asked, putting his hand on the next door.

"Ready." She replied, winking at him. "The nightmare ends, here and now."

She supposed that she already knew what was in there, even before Leon opened the door, but it was still unnerving to see that the eye-monster had not only survived the facility's self-destruct, but had also somehow had the time to get onboard the train. There was a hole in the next car's ceiling, where the monster had torn its way in like it had done with the sky-car, and it was just starting to walk toward them, when they started shooting.

 _Bang! Zap! Bang! Zap!_ The bullets and electric bolts struck the monster like an angry hive of hornets, and to the surprise of both of them, it was backing up. So they kept firing, with Leon reloading twice, and Claire starting to believe that her weapon would never run out of power, when the eye-monster collapsed onto all fours, while making a different, yet familiar sound that she had definitely heard before… but couldn't place it.

Making the sound again, the monster's body started to split open as the fluids inside bubbled and boiled outward, spilling onto the floor as its body began to change yet again. The eye-monster's head became more elongated, and its body became more canine like, looking like it was adapting to walk on all fours instead of upright… and there were some kind of sharp spines beginning to protrude from its chest… while the whole thing got bigger and more muscular.

"Run!" Leon yelled, starting to back up. "Run!"

He waited until Claire ran past him before following, the two of them leaving the car, and slamming the door behind them. The monster could be heard roaring again, in an even deeper and more animalistic voice… before shaking the car as it started to run toward them. The young woman was now more terrified than she had been about anything else during the whole night, and she was looking for some way to lock the door from the outside… when it locked _for_ her.

Some heavy locking bars fell into place, shaking and rattling when the monster impacted the door, but they held. But why had they locked in the first place? She hadn't done, or pushed anything except for that emergency button to start the train, and that meant that everything should have stayed unlocked.

" _Warning: Hazardous viral materials detected_." A voice announced. " _Emergency lockdown engaged; this train will self-destruct in five minutes. Repeat, this train will self-destruct in five minutes_."


	41. Chapter 41 Light at the End

**Downfall: Resident Evil II**

 **Chapter Forty One: Light at the End**

No, Leon thought as the train's computer gave its warning, this wasn't how it was supposed to be. They had survived the streets of Raccoon City, the RPD, the water treatment plant, _and_ that strange Umbrella facility, meaning that it was supposed to all be over once the train rolled out. But no, here they were again, locked out of the front car where Sherry was most likely trapped by the lockdown, and watching as the door to the rear car looked a little less sturdy with each impact.

"Seriously, what is it going to take to kill this thing?" He asked, seeing another dent form in the door. "How are we even supposed to _fight_ it anymore?"

"Forget about the monster, Leon." Claire replied, jumping up to grab above the locked door. "We've got to get Sherry out of there, and stop the train!"

When he turned to look at what she was doing, the young woman had already climbed half way up to the roof of the train, and apparently it was a lot harder to move once up there, since the wind was whipping her hair around and nearly making her lose her balance. One of the lockdown bolts was starting to shake loose the next time the roaring eye-monster rammed into the door, so Leon jumped up to follow Claire's path.

Nearly losing his balance as well once at the top, the young man followed close behind as the two of them slowly crawled across the roof on their stomachs in order to avoid as much of the wind resistance as possible. The front car was normal length plus the driver's compartment, so this process was taking a while; both of them reaching about the halfway point, when the heart-sinking sound of a metal door being knocked off its hinges reached their ears, even above the wind.

The young man had to struggle to even manage to look back, and once he did, he immediately wished that he hadn't, because it was just in time to see the more animalistic eye-monster leap up onto the train's rooftop in order to pursue them. However, the roof of the tunnel was lower than the monster anticipated, causing its next roar to be cut off when its head struck the top, sending it rolling backwards down to the doors.

"Keep moving!" Leon yelled, knowing it wasn't going to give up that easily. "Claire, go!"

"I'm almost at the hatch!" She yelled back, changing her grip to move another few inches forward. "Just a few more inches!"

Just as she said, the next time she was able to scoot forward, the young woman had reached the top hatch of the driver's compartment, and Leon sighed with relief when she was able to open it, worried that it would have been locked down as well. But as Claire pulled it open and leaned down into the car to say something to Sherry, his relief turned into dread when the eye-creature made a second attempt to leap up onto the roof.

Again, its head was pushed up against the top of the tunnel, and the friction immediately started to wear its body down, leaving a trail of purple fluid behind it along the top of the tunnel. However, this time the monster managed to stay on top of the train, letting out an almost pained roar when it started crawling forward. The pace at which it moved was slow, but its arms and legs were long, meaning that it would have easily caught up to the two of them after only a few movements… if the top of the tunnel wasn't there breaking down the top half of its body.

Crawling as close as he could to Claire, without falling off the train, Leon considered trying to shoot the monster again… but what could his pistols do that the train tunnel was not? Slightly ahead, the young woman was still yelling something to Sherry, although the young man couldn't hear it over the wind and roaring, but what he did hear as the monster got closer… was a strange kind of growl when the monster stopped moving.

As it had done before, the eye-monster's body started to change, breaking open in places while its insides were bubbling out, and now that it was holding still, the next time it touched the top of the train tunnel, it was thrown backwards like before. However, as the creature's bubbling and changing body fell back down to the doors, Leon started to feel something else… the train wasn't bouncing as much now, and the wind was becoming less severe… the train was slowing down.

"You did it, Sherry!" Claire exclaimed, before turning back to get Leon's attention. "Quick, help me pull her up."

Moving up alongside her, and both of them reaching down to grab the little girl, the train continued to slow down as they pulled her up through the hatch by the arms. Of course, now that the young man had briefly seen the inside of the driver's compartment, along with the overly complicated control panels, he wasn't shy about wondering how Sherry had managed to work the train.

"It wasn't hard, Leon." The little girl replied, the train still slowing down. "I saw someone do that on TV once."

The moment would have been funny, if not for the gurgling almost-roar that no longer sounded like it was coming from the mouth of a living thing, occurring a second later. The good news was that the train had finally come to a stop, but the bad news was that there was movement coming from back where the eye-creature had fallen. Movement that came in the form of an almost gelatinous, expanded body, and a series of tentacles that were extending to help it climb back up onto the roof of the train.

"Go!" Leon yelled, pushing both of them forward. "Go!"

The creature gurgled again as not one, but _several_ yellow eyes started to open up on and around its blob-like body, and as it started to slowly ooze its way toward the front of the train, Leon, Claire, and Sherry were climbing down the front. The instant that all three of them were on the ground, they started running, noticing two important things as they went: The first was that there was a bright yellow light coming from the end of the tunnel, which was only a short distance away… and the second was that the eye-monster had reached the front of the train.

Now engulfing the whole car as if trying to digest it, the monster oozed its way down the front, and prepared to send out its now incredibly long tentacles… just in time for the whole train to explode. The last gurgle-roar was cut off as the train vanished in a flash of orange-white light, sending a shockwave of smoke and wind that knocked the three of them to the ground just as they were exiting the tunnel.

Dust was kicked up as the whole tunnel collapsed into a large, impassible barrier of rock and rubble, and when the dust cleared, there was no sign of the eye-monster. There was also no sign of Raccoon City, for that matter, and as the morning sun slowly rose into the sky, Leon saw that they were at the base of a mountain. The train tracks ended about a hundred meters from where they were standing, and beyond that was a dirt road, some powerlines… and not much else among the grasslands.

"The tunnel." Leon commented, looking back at the rubble. "It must've taken us all the way to the far side of the Arklay Mountains… that means we're out… we're safe."

It took the others a few seconds to realize that the nightmare was really over, for real this time, and then Sherry cheered as she and Claire hugged. They had made it, and now for what felt like the first time in forever, the young man sat down to rest. Closing his eyes as the sun started to warm his face, Leon realized that after everything that had happened throughout the night, the sun had never felt so good before in his life.

"Don't just sit there, Leon." Claire said, snapping him out of it. "Come on, we gotta get going."

"What do you mean, Claire?" The little girl asked. "Go where?"

Her answer started out simple enough; wanting them to get as far away from Raccoon City as possible, while also finding somewhere for them to get some actual food. Leon couldn't argue with this, since the last thing he had actually eaten was a stale candy bar from that vending machine in the RPD, so he got to his feet just as she was finishing her explanation for being in such a hurry.

"We might have escaped Raccoon City." The young woman continued. "But Umbrella is _huge,_ and if they did this _here_ , who knows what else they're planning? That's why I have to find my brother, Chris. If he left because of what he already found on Umbrella, then we need to work together and make sure this never happens anywhere again… will you help me, Leon?"

Instead of answering, Leon simply walked over to her, picked Claire up off her feet, and kissed her as deeply as he had wanted to since she had saved him back in the sewers. This might have drawn a negative comment from Sherry, but he wasn't listening, instead promising that he would always be there for both of them, before the three of them turned to leave the nightmare of Raccoon City behind them forever.


End file.
